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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOEOID 


THE  SPECKLED 

BR©-QK 

Ykou% 

/         (Sal-uelinus  Fontinalis)         1 
BY  VARIOUS  EXPERTS  WITH  ROJ 
ND  REEL  EDITED  AND, 
ILL  USTR ATED 
BY  LOUIS  RHEAD 
V  WITH  / 

AN  INTRODUCTIOM  BY^ 
HARLl 


RHRUSSELL  NEWYORK 


Copyr?'ght,  igo2,  by 
Robert  Howard  Russell 


f?Y 


PREFACE 

THE  extreme  popularity  of  the  Brook  Trout 
has  been  fully  proved  by  the  host  of  anglers 
who  fish  for  him,  and  it  can  scarcely  be  nec- 
essary to  solicit  their  favor  toward  a  vol- 
ume embellished  with  pictures  reproduced  in  later  and 
better  methods  than  any  that  have  hitherto  appeared, 
and  with  contributions  by  different  experts  well  known 
in  departments  of  the  art  of  angling. 

The  Editor  originally  intended  to  issue  a  series  of 
volumes  under  the  title  of  "A  Library  of  Rod  and 
Gun,"  and  still  may  do  so  should  a  kindly  reception  be 
given  this  volume  by  lovers  of  nature  and  of  angling. 

The  first  object  of  this  work  is  to  supply  general 
information  on  the  Salvelinus  fontinalis.  It  is  hoped 
that  it  will  also  prove  of  interest  to  amateurs  as  well  as 
to  expert  anglers,  who  will  add  it  to  their  list  of  books 
to  take  on  their  trips  to  read  and  re-read  at  odd  times — 


iVi3G3360 


PREFACE 

not  too  bulky  or  crowded  with  technical  terms  or  mat- 
ter of  little  interest  to  the  average  fisherman  who  is 
interested  in  angling  only  as  a  sport  or  pleasure  and 
change  from  the  activity  of  city  life  and  business 
cares. 

So  much  has  been  written  and  still  remains  to  be 
written,  an  Editor's  greatest  difficulty  is  to  condense 
matter  pertaining  to  this  particular  fish  when  articles 
are  contributed  by  a  number  of  writers,  but,  for  the 
generous  assistance  (in  many  small  details)  of  two 
veteran  editor-authors,  Charles  Hallock  and  Wm.  C. 
Harris,  who  have  for  more  than  half  a  century  cast  the 
fly  and  used  the  pen,  the  Editor's  incompetency  would 
have  been  more  apparent. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Annin  for  his  article  on 
"  Winged  Enemies  of  Trout; "  again  to  Mr.  Hallock 
for  his  delightful  poem ;  and  to  the  memory  of  the  late 
Nelson  Cheney,  who  but  a  short  time  before  his  sud- 
den death  cheerfully  gave  me  permission  to  use,  and 
promised  to  add  matter  to  his  article  on  "  Trout 
Propagation"  from  the  State  report;  to  Mrs.  Mary 
Orvis  Marbury  for  her  selection  and  arrangement  of 
the  colored  sheet  ot  flies,  made  especially  by  her  for 
this  volume ;  indeed,  to  all  the  authors  who  have  con- 
tributed their  best  efforts  and  whose  friendly  interest 
made  the  labor  most  agreeable,  and  lastly  to  Mr.  Rus- 
sell, who  has  in  every  way  been  lavish,  not  only  in 
expenditure  but  in  many  little  artistic  details  which 
have  made  all  his  books  so  choice. 
F 


PREFACE 

In  behalf  of  the  Publisher,  I  wish  to  acknowledge 
indebtedness  to  the  courtesy  of  Harper  &  Brothers  tor 
the  use  of  an  article  written  thirty  years  ago  by  Charles 
Hallock  in  "The  Fishing  Tourist,"  and  to  ■toic/i 
■Top/rs  for  the  use  of  parts  of  an  article  on  the  old  and 
the  changed  Adirondacks. 

Louis  Rhead. 


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CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface     E 

Baptism  of  the   Brook  Trout     .     Charles  Hallock   .      M 

General      Description     of      the 

Trout  Family Charles  Hallock  .        i 

Big  Trout  of  the  Nepigon, 
Lake  Edward,  Lake  Batis- 
CAN,   Etc E.T.D.  Chambers      2i 

The   Habits  of  the  Trout     .      .     irm.  C.  Harris  .     49 

The   Old   Adirondacks  ....      Charles  Hallock  .      67 

The  New  Adirondacks 91 

An  Angler's  Notes  on  the  Bea- 
ver kili Benjamin  Kent     .    103 

1 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Winged  Enemies  of  Brook  Trout  J.  Annin^  Jr.      .    127 

Trout   Propagation J,  Melson  Cheney     141 

Some    Notes    on    Cooking    Brook 

Trout Louu  Rhend  .      .155 

Along  a  Trout-Stream       .     .      .  L.  F.  Brown.      .    165 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Speckled  Brook  Trout,  Colored  Plate    .     Fromiipiece 

Opposite 
Page 

The  Willowemoc 4 

Casting  in  the  Shallows,  Photogravure 8 

"  Rising  to  the  Natural  Fly  " 14 

"  Evening  Firelight  Stories  " 30 

"Dashing  Down  Stream  "  (Beaverkill) 58 

"  Taking  the  First  Rush  " 62 

V.    C.    Bartlett's    Sportsmen's     Home,    Saranac     Lake, 

New  York,  in  1873 76 

Paul  Smith's  in  1873 80 

Trout  Flies,  Colored  Plate no 

"Softly  Creeping,  Lightly  Dropping" 114 

A  Cool  Spot  in  Leafy  June,  Photogravure 122 

"  The  End  of  a  Stiff  Fight  " 144 

The  "Mongaup"  at  De  Bruce 150 

"  Ready  for  Cooking  " 160 

"  Tired  of  the  Struggle  " 170 

"A  Pool  where  Big  Fellows  Lie  Low" 178 

K 


BAPTISM  OF  THE  BROOK  TROUT. 

I  AM  Salmo  Fontinalis, 
To  the  sparkling  fountain  born, 
And  my  home  is  where  oxalis, 
Heather  bell  and  rose  adorn 
The  crystal  basin  in  the  dell, 
(Undine  the  wood-nymph  knows  it  well,) 
That  is  where  I  love  to  dwell. 

There  was  I  baptized  and  christened, 

'Neath  the  sombre  aisles  of  oak, 
Mute  the  cascade  paused  and  listened. 
Never  a  word  the  brooklet  spoke : 
Bobolink  was  witness  then, 
Likewise  Ousel,  Linnet,  Wren, 
And  all  the  brownies  joined  "  amen." 
M 


BROOK     TROUT 

Noted  oft  in  ancient  story. 

Erst  from  immemorial  time, 
Poets,  anglers,  hermits  hoary 

Confirm  my  vested  rights  sublime. 
All  along  the  mountain  range, 
"  'Tis  writ  in  mystic  symbols  strange  : 
''  Naught  shall  abrogate  or  change." 

Thus  as  Salmo  Fontinalis 

Recognized  the  wide  world  o'er,* 
In  my  limpid  crystal  palace, 
Content  withal,  I  ask  no  more ; 

Leaping  through  the  rainbow  spray, 
Snatching  flies  the  livelong  day. 
Naught  to  do  but  live  and  play. 

*  But  scientists  have  changed   this  most  appropriate  designation  to 
o.  iialvelinus,  more's  the  pity  ! 


GENERAL    DESCRIPTION    OF    THE 
TROUT    FAMILY 


GENERAL 

DESCRIPTION   OF   THE 

TROUT   FAMILY. 


As  Old  as  the  Hills. 

]k  CCORDING  to  Dr.  Shufeldt,  an  eminent  and 
/^L       trustworthy  authority,  the  Sahnonidifi  date 
J      %     back   to  the  Tertiary  Period.     He   thinks 
it    probable    that    at    the    opening    of   the 
Glacial    Epoch    the    fresh   waters  of  North  America 
swarmed  with  various  Salmonoid  fishes.     At  the  close 
of  that  epoch,  all  the  streams  and  basins  which  had 
been  subjected  to  its  influence  were  gouged  out  and 
destroyed,   and   their  ichthyic  tenants  summarily  dis- 
possessed.    One  direct  result  was  to  drive  a  portion 


BROOK     TROUT 


into  the  sea,  notably  the  salmons  and  the  sea  trout, 
which  there  became  habilitated. 

The  effect  of  the  ice-blanket  which  so  long  over- 
laid the  earth  was  to  cool  the  earth's  heated  and  plastic 
crust,  thereby  causing  shrinkage,  which  in  turn  created 
fissures,  both  superficial  and  subterrene;  and  these 
served  as  conduits  for  the  fluvial  output  from  the  dis- 
solving glacial  sheet,  and  as  passageways  for  the 
salmonidse. 

'Distribution. 

Throughout  subsequent  ages  subterranean  streams 
have  played  a  very  important  part  in  fish  distribution, 
especially  in  affording  passage  under  mountain  eleva- 
tions and  high  table-lands,  which  would  otherwise 
have  proved  insurmountable  obstacles  to  superficial 
transit.  Of  the  existence  of  a  subterranean  fluvial 
system  co-extensive  with  the  continental  area,  and 
having  intimate  connection  with  the  ocean,  we  have 
abundant  manifestations.  The  remarkable  fresh-water 
ebullitions  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  fathomless  sink- 
holes and  mammoth  springs  in  the  adjacent  peninsula 
of  Florida,  the  re-entering  "  zanates  "  on  the  coast  of 
Mexico,  and  the  copious  gushes  of  oil,  gas,  and  water 
which  break  out  of  the  sands  and  rocks  all  over  the 
continent,  are  striking  and  familiar  attestations.  So, 
also,  sudden  changes  are  occasionally  observed  in  the 
quality  and  color  of  interior  ponds,  with  metamor- 
phoses of  their  bottom  floors,  and  of  the  living  organ- 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

isms  which  they  generate  and  nurture  ;  and  there  are 
intermittent  ebbs  and  flows  in  the  Great  Lakes,  after 
the  simiHtude  of  tides.  Many  lakes  do  not  diminish 
by  outflow,  evaporation,  or  absorption,  in  the  hottest 
weather,  nor  overflow  in  the  wettest  seasons,  remaining 
always  at  a  uniform  stage.  Others  suddenly  lose  half 
their  volume,  or  drain  off  altogether.  Some  swarm 
with  fish  at  times,  and  again  are  apparently  barren. 
All  of  these  phenomena  are  easily  accounted  for  on 
the  hypothesis  of  underground  connection  and  in  no 
other  way. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  a  far  more  copious  and 
extensive  fluvial  system  under  the  earth  than  there  is 
on  top  of  it,  any  engorgement  thereof  forcing  the  flow 
to  the  surface,  where  it  finds  vent  and  manifestation 
through  crater  cones,  geysers,  sink-holes,  artesian  wells, 
and  intermittent  springs ;  also  throwing  out  fish,  not 
eyeless  cave-dwellers,  but  wide-awake,  lusty  and  well- 
formed  specimens  of  whitefish,  sunfish,  goggle-eyes, 
mud-cats,  blue-cats,  suckers,  eels,  bass,  and  pike-perch, 
as  well  as  lizards  and  sea-shrimps.  We  do  not  find 
trout  represented  in  the  list  because  it  is  a  primitive 
species,  the  subterranean  streams  having  accomplished 
their  general  distribution  ages  ago,  under  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  period.  Blind  fishes  are  not  thrown  out, 
because  they  are  committed  to  the  lock-up  for  life, 
segregated  in  underground  pockets  which  have,  per- 
haps, no  available  outlets.  At  all  events,  the  eyeless 
fishes  which  we  find  in  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Ken- 


BROOK     TROUT 

tucky  and  elsewhere,  have  become  so  adapted  to  their 
environment  and  to  acquired  methods  of  procuring 
subsistence,  that  they  seem  content  and  attempt  no 
exit.  It  is  not  assumed  that  the  hard  lethe-Hke  waters 
of  the  deeper  fluvial  veins  take  any  part  in  this  econ- 
omy of  fish  distribution,  for  assuredly  no  life  can  exist 
therein,  impregnated  as  they  are  with  salts  and  base 
solutions.  Surface  water,  too,  imbibes  the  impurities 
of  the  earth  or  soil  over  which  it  passes,  and  it  is  only 
when  it  has  been  filtered  by  percolation  through  sand 
and  gravel  beds  that  it  becomes  as  pure  as  when  it 
first  descended  in  rainfall.  In  such  pellucid  fluid, 
drawn  fresh  from  the  bosom  of  mother  earth,  the  trout 
thrive  best,  and  in  its  vivifying  arteries,  borne  under- 
ground, the  salmonidse  have  been  passed  from  one 
antipodal  locality  to  another,  at  various  depths,  accord- 
ing to  the  lay  of  the  land. 

Distribution  by  other  than  subterranean  waterways 
is  various.  The  presence  of  alien  species  in  landlocked 
waters  is  often  due  to  overflows,  freshets,  and  cata- 
clysms. Transportation  by  migratory  birds  and  even 
by  insects,  and  precipitation  by  cloud-bursts  and  water- 
spouts, are  of  frequent  occurrence.  There  is  beyond 
all  an  accepted  theory  of  aerial  incubation  of  fish  ova 
which  are  held  in  suspension  in  the  upper  atmosphere 
until  the  hatched-out  fry  drop  to  earth  or  convenient 
water  spaces  in  some  rainfall.  One  most  potential 
factor  in  mechanical  distribution  is  the  sturdy  pelican, 
whose  range  of  habitat  is  of  great  extent,  reaching 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  sub-Arctic  regions. 
In  his  capacious  pouch  he  will  carry  quantities  of  as- 
sorted fish,  alive,  over  long  distances,  often  sitting  down 
beside  some  lake  or  pond  to  feed  upon  his  catch,  and 
spilling  the  overplus  into  the  water. 

In  current  years,  human  agency  is  scattering  broad- 
cast, populating  new  streams  or  rehabilitating  those 
which  have  become  barren.  Indeed,  the  presence  of 
trout  in  a  large  majority  of  amorphous  locations  can 
be  historically  accounted  for.  For  instance,  s.  fontinalls^ 
which  is  now  diffused  all  over  the  Appalachian  Ridge 
in  Virginia,  Tennessee,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and 
even  in  Northeastern  Georgia,  often  attaining  a  weight 
of  two  pounds,  was  introduced  by  General  Wade 
Hampton  some  fifty  years  ago,  and  only  last  summer 
I  saw  him  at  Sapphire,  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven,  en- 
joying the  fruits  of  his  providential  forethought.  The 
speckled  trout  of  Castalia,  O.,  were  planted  by  the 
club  which  appropriated  that  famous  spring  and  con- 
verted it  into  a  fruitful  stream  a  quarter  of  a  century 
back.  The  monster  rainbow  trout  {s.  iridius)^  of 
Macon  County,  N.  C,  were  planted  at  Highlands 
twenty  years  ago  by  Henry  Stewart,  of  New  Jersey, 
and  the  Sapphire  Lake  trout,  of  the  same  species,  by 
the  Toxaway  Company,  who  are  chiefly  Pittsburg 
gentlemen.  Some  of  these  introduced  rainbow  trout 
have  been  caught  weighing  five  pounds,  and  even 
more.  The  rainbow  trout  of  Cumberland  County,  in 
central  North  Carohna,  were  planted  at  my  request  by 


BROOK     TROUT 

D.  C.  Ravenel,  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission. 
German  trout  (s.  fario)  and  Loch  Leven  trout  (j, 
levenetnis)  have  been  introduced  from  abroad  into 
many  locations  never  before  occupied  by  any  of  the 
Sahiio  family,  and  are  found  to  thrive.  In  fine,  the 
brook  trout  of  North  America  and  his  congeners,  large 
and  small,  not  only  "  use  "  in  mountain-streams,  but 
in  the  wide  rivers  and  lakes,  as  well  as  in  salty  estu- 
aries, and  along  the  sea-shores.  They  occupy  the 
whole  of  British  America  except  the  continental  mid- 
way and  are  included  in  no  less  than  thirty-nine  States 
and  Territories.  Trout  of  some  sort  are  found  in  the 
six  New  England  States,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  West  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  0}uo^  Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Min- 
nesota, Iowa,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  New  Mexico,  Colo- 
rado, Nebraska,  South  Dakota,  North  Dakota,  Montana, 
Wyoming,  Idaho,  Washington,  Oregon,  California, 
Arizona,  Chihuahua,  Texas,  and  Alaska.  It  is  not 
native  to  any  of  those  italicized,  and  is  found  in  very 
limited  portions  only  of  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Texas. 
Since  a  century  ago  we  have  discovered  and  enumer- 
ated the  most  of  them  and,  at  last,  dios  gratios  !  affixed 
a  nomenclature  (more  or  less  trinomial)  which  it  may 
be  hoped  will  stand  as  long  as  men  fish  and  trout 
swim ;  or  at  least  during  the  lifetime  of  the  present 
generation. 

6 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

Species  and  Farietks. 

In  making  these  traverses  from  one  geographical 
division  to  another,  and  from  one  quality  of  water  to 
another,  as  affected  by  impregnation  of  salts,  oxides, 
and  what  not,  the  trout  creation  must  have  undergone 
those  physical  modifications  and  changes  in  habits, 
and  perhaps  in  markings  and  coloration,  which  are 
conspicuous  throughout  the  family ;  thereby  estab- 
lishing from  time  to  time  new  species,  as  well  as  vari- 
eties not  recognized  by  scientists  as  species.  These 
find  taxonomic  expression  in  kaleidoscopic  body-pat- 
terns (like  the  orchids  and  begonias),  as  well  as  in 
form,  size,  weight,  tint  of  flesh,  and  rapidity  of 
growth.  Thus  we  have  the  diminutive  blue-back  of 
the  Rangeleys,  seldom  exceeding  four  ounces  in  aver- 
age weight;  the  gigantic  lake  trout  {jiMnaycusli)^  at- 
taining lOO  pounds ;  the  sea  trout  of  British  America, 
a  purely  marine  fish,  ranging  coastwise  from  Maine  to 
Alaska,  feeding  along  shore,  spawning  in  the  estuaries 
at  the  head  of  the  tide,  and  seldom  running  up  more 
than  a  mile  or  two  into  the  fresh-water  streams ;  the 
red-spotted  Dolly  Vardens  of  California  ;  the  rainbow 
trout  of  the  Rockies ;  the  red  trout  of  Idaho ;  the 
black-spotted  varieties  of  the  Continental  Divide ;  the 
steelheads  of  Oregon ;  the  olivaceous  trouts  of  our 
Eastern  lakes ;  the  black  togue  of  Maine ;  the  silvery 
trout  of  the  Penobscot  Basin  ;  the  white  trout  of  Loch 
Lomond  in  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  ;  and,  best 


BROOK     TROUT 

known  and  most  attractive  of  all,  the  radiant  brook 
trout  of  New  England,  with  its  spangles  of  crimson, 
blue,  and  orange,  its  mottled  upper  fins  and  vermicu- 
lated  back,  its  crimson  pectoral  fins  edged  with  black 
and  white,  its  varying  weights,  its  gameness  on  the 
hook  and  off  it,  its  bravery  in  the  ring,  and  its  all-round 
vigor  and  beauty — all  of  which  give  to  it  an  individu- 
ality which  has  made  it  conspicuous  in  song  and  story 
since  the  day  of  its  advent.  The  Messenger  Brothers, 
of  Boston,  once  put  an  equal  number  of  black  bass 
and  trout  of  different  sizes  in  a  large  aquarium  to  dis- 
cover the  survival  of  the  fittest,  giving  no  food,  but 
leaving  them  to  prey  on  each  other ;  and  in  spite  of 
all  the  sharp  spines  and  protecting  scale  armor  of  the 
bass,  the  trout  had  equal  honors  !  Out  of  two  even 
dozen  four  of  each  survived. 

As  long  ago  as  1748,  the  Russian  naturalist,  George 
Stellar,  made  known  the  salmonidie  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  In  1804,  Lewis  and  Clark,  American  explorers, 
added  some  Rocky  Mountain  species.  In  1855,  Dr. 
Suckley,  of  the  Pacific  Railway  Survey,  gave  a  list  of 
seventeen  peculiar  to  the  waters  of  Washington  and 
Oregon.  "  Hallock's  Gazetteer  "  enumerated  and  de- 
scribed some  twenty  or  more  recognized  species  in 
1877;  at  which  date  ichthyology  was  hardly  out  of 
kindergarten.  Since  then,  immense  strides  have  been 
made  in  the  pursuit  of  this  science,  chiefly  under  the 
tutelage  of  the  inimitable  United  States  Fish  Commis- 
sion, with  its  manifold  equipments;  so  that  it  has  been 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

able  to  discover  and  classify  not  only  the  trouts,  but 
all  the  salt  and  fresh  water  genera  of  the  continent. 

A  recent  official  summary  of  American  trout,  pre- 
pared for  me  by  courtesy  of  William  C.  Harris,  author 
of  "  North  American  Fishes,"  gives  thirty-eight  species, 
besides  three  introduced  from  Europe,  and  not  includ- 
ing the  sea  trout  (s.  Canadensis  and  immaculatus),  which 
was  recognized  as  a  distinct  species  by  Smith,  Storer, 
Scott,  Hallock,  and  other  early  ichthyologists,  in  con- 
travention of  the  present  standard  of  differentiation, 
which  is  based  on  anatomical  structure  entirely : 

Summary  of  American  Trouts. 

Salmon  Grouts. 

Cutthroat  or  Rocky  Mountain  Trout — Salmo  Clarkii. 

Yellowstone  Trout — Sahno  Clarkii  /£'cc;/j/— sub-species 
represented  in  the  tributaries  of  the  Columbia 
River  by  Salmo  Clarkii  gibsii — sub-species. 

Lake  Tahoe  Trout — Salmo  Clarkii  Hensha-usi — sub- 
species. 

Utah  Lake  Trout  —  Salmo  Clarkii  virginalis  —  sub- 
species. 

Rio  Grande  Trout — Salmo  Clarkii  spilvrus — sub-species. 

Colorado  River  Trout — Salmo  Clarkii  plenriticus — sub- 
species, 

Waha  Lake  Trout — Salmo  Clarkii  howceri — sub-species. 

Green-back  Trout — Salmo  Clarkii  stomias — sub-species. 

9 


BROOK     TROUT 

Yellow-fin  Trout  —  Sal  mo  Clarkii  Macdonaldi  —  sub- 
species. 

Silver  Trout  of  Lake  Tahoe — Sulmo  Clarkii  tahoenensis 
— sub-species. 

Salmon  Trout  of  Lake  Sutherland — Salmo  Clarkii  de- 
divifrons — sub-spec  i  es. 

Spotted  Trout  of  Lake  Sutherland — Salmo  Clarkii 
Jordani — sub-species. 

Long-headed  Trout  of  Lake  Crescent — Salmo  bathoe- 
cetor. 

Steelhead  Trout — Salmo  gairdneri. 

Kamloops  Trout  —  Salmo  gairdneri  Kamloops  —  sub- 
species. 

Blue-back  Trout  of  Lake  Crescent — Salmo  gairdneri 
beardsleei — sub-spec  ies. 

Speckled  Trout  of  Lake  Crescent — Salmo  gairdneri 
crescentis — sub-spec  ies. 

The  Rainbow  Trout — Salmo  irideus. 

The  Rainbow  Trout  of  West  Oregon — Sahno  irideus 
masoni — sub-species. 

The  Rainbow  Trout  of  McCloud  River — Sahno  irideus 
shasta — sub-species. 

The  Kern  River  Trout — Salmo  irideus  gilberti — sub- 
species. 

The  NissuU  or  No-shee  Trout — Salmo  irideus  stoneri — 
sub-species. 

The  Golden  Trout  of  Mt.  Whitney — Salmo  irideus 
aqua-bonita — sub-spec  i  es. 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

Char  -trouts. 

The  Great  Lake  Trout — Cristivomer  namaycush — rep- 
resented in  Lake  Superior  by  Cristivomer  namay- 
cush siscotwet — sub-species. 

Eastern  Brook  or  Red-spotted  Trout — Salvelinus 
fontinalis. 

Dublin  Pond  Trout — Salvelinus  fontinalis  agassizii — 
sub-species. 

Dolly  Varden  Trout — Salvelinus  parkei. 

Dolly  Varden  Trout  of  Kamchatka — Salvelinus  Kund' 
scha. 

Saibling  or  European  Char — Salvelinus  alpinus. 

Long-finned  Char — Salvelinus  Alpinus  Alipes — sub- 
species. 

Greenland  Char — Salvelinus  Alpinus  Stagnalis — sub- 
species. 

American  Arctic  Char — Salvelinus  Alpinus  Arcturus 
— sub-species. 

^\ix\2iipttlLXOwt— Salvelinus  Alpinus  Aureolus — sub-species. 

Blue-back  or  Oquassa  Trout — Salvelinus  Oquassa. 

The  Naresi  Trout — Salvelinus  Oquassa  Naresi — sub- 
species. 

The  Lac  de  Marbre  Trout — Salvelinus  Oquassa  Mar- 
stoni — sub-spec  ies. 

Introduced  Salmon  "Grouts. 

German,  brown  or  Von  Behr  Trout — Salmo  fario. 
Loch  Leven  Trout — Salmo  Levenensis. 


BROOK     TROUT 

Etlihs  of  the  II  'ouch. 

Has  anyone  ever  thought  of  the  trout  as  a  great 
moral  agent,  a  conservator  of  human  welfare,  as  well 
as  a  contributor  to  sport  ?     If  not,  why  not "? 

Let  us  consider:  Has  not  this  universal  favorite 
among  game-fishes  posed  for  decades  as  an  economic 
factor  to  increase  the  revenues  of  States  and  replenish 
depleted  exchequers?  Has  he  not  led  the  prospector 
and  explorer  up  the  unmapped  defiles  to  the  crown  of 
the  divide  and  discovered  rare  plants,  timber  tracts, 
precious  ores,  and  water-powers  ?  Has  he  not  stimu- 
lated a  love  for  nature,  made  men  good,  virtuous,  and 
humane  ?  Given  occupation  to  idlers,  lured  loafers 
from  demoralizing  environment,  filled  libraries  with 
poetry,  hcllcs  lettres^  and  an  angling  bibliography  as 
unique  as  it  is  entertaining  ?  Has  he  not,  in  fact, 
been  a  potential  instrument  to  distribute  population 
over  the  wilderness  places,  and  so  filled  up  the  Arca- 
dian recesses  of  the  Catskills,  the  Adirondacks,  the 
White  Mountains,  the  Appalachians,  the  Rockies,  and 
the  Cascades  with  cottages,  parks,  and  summer  hotels, 
where  the  worker  and  wage-earner  may  rest  from  their 
labors  and  the  butterflies  of  fashion  find  a  healthful 
and  uesthetic  elysium  ? 

Reflecting  in  its  piebald  garb  the  iridescence  of 
the  gauze-winged  ephemera  and  parti-colored  flowers 
which  bespangle  its  sequestered  haunts  in  the  leafy 
month  of  June,  it  inspires  poets,  generates  good-fellow- 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

ship,  soothes  the  sullen  moods  of  hermits,  and  makes 
good  comrades  of  us  all.  It  is  associated  with  nature 
in  her  most  winsome  phases,  and  none  can  cultivate 
its  acquaintance  without  becoming  the  better  man. 
With  a  good  supper  at  hand  in  a  rustic  camp,  after  a 
tiresome  day,  orisons  and  benisons  rise  spontaneously. 

Insects  as  Food. 

Oh,  leafy  June  I  animate  with  countless  insect  forms! 
Beneath  each  maturing  leaf  bursts  the  opening  chrysa- 
lis. Upon  the  flux  of  the  eddy  floats  the  empty  cad- 
dis boats,  their  whilom  tenants  already  translated  to 
the  upper  ether.  Fleets  of  gnat-rafts,  tossed  about  and 
broken  up  by  the  tumbling  foam  of  the  cascades  re- 
lease the  myriads  of  inexorable  midgets,  which  pursue 
the  angler  through  the  summer  months  and  vex  his 
waking  hours.  Gaunt  mosquitoes  wriggle  out  of  their 
swaddling  clothes  to  pipe  their  resurrection-song  and 
range  afar  in  quest  of  blood.  Wherever  we  turn, 
whether  on  land  or  water,  under  this  decaying  leaf  or  in 
that  rotten  log,  in  the  folds  of  the  alder  leaves,  trees, 
and  willows  which  overhang  the  streams,  among  the 
succulent  weeds  which  carpet  the  ponds  and  river-bot- 
toms, within  the  mosses  which  cling  to  the  trees,  and 
in  the  corrugated  bark  wherever  it  grows,  we  shall 
find  in  this  month  of  June  an  infinite  variety  of  beetles, 
flies,  moths,  grubs,  larvie,  aphides,  worms,  chrysalides, 
etc.,  which  comprise  the  main  food  supply  of  the  brook- 
trout  and  his  congeners  of  lake  and  river.  Insects 
13 


BROOK     TROUT 

and  trout  are  the  principal  tenants  of  all  forested  areas 
where  water  spaces  occur.  When  forests  disappear 
the  trout  disappear,  because  their  food  supply  is  cut  off. 
The  same  law  applies  to  the  salmon.  All  salmon 
streams  head  in  the  forests,  but  the  incidents  of  civili- 
zation have  depleted  most  of  the  rivers  on  the  Atlan- 
tic coast.  The  Hudson,  the  Connecticut,  the  Merri- 
mac,  the  Kennebec,  the  Penobscot,  and  the  Aroostook, 
all  salmon  streams  erstwhile,  and  many  Nova  Scotia 
rivers  also,  became  barren  long  before  artificial  or  nat- 
ural obstructions  barred  their  ascent.  This  postulate 
of  food  supply  would  seem,  then,  to  settle  the  much- 
discussed  question  whether  salmon  eat  in  fresh  water 
while  on  their  way  to  the  spawning  beds.  Insects  are 
their  chief  sustenance  in  the  sylvan  streams,  and  they 
eat  there  to  live.  It  would  be  inexplicable,  indeed,  if 
salmon  alone  of  all  creatures  were  not  required  by 
nature  to  fortify  and  strengthen  themselves  for  the  su- 
preme work  of  procreation.  It  depends,  however, 
upon  the  length  of  rivers  whether  they  feed.  If  the 
rivers  be  short,  like  those  of  Nova  Scotia,  Labrador, 
and  Alaska,  the  run  is  short,  and  the  necessity  of  eat- 
ing minimized ;  but  in  large  rivers,  like  those  of  New 
Brunswick  and  the  Pacific  side,  it  is  different. 

Other  ^rout  Food. 

There   are   some    localities   like  the   Great   Lakes 
where  insect  forms  are  replaced  by  other  kinds  of  food, 
because  they  are  prevalent.     Flies  are  therefore  disre- 
14 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

garded,  though  the  instinct  of  pursuit  being  dominant, 
some  trout  are  taken  with  flies.  For  the  same  reason, 
salmon  roe  is  the  preferred  bait  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
comprising  as  it  does  the  principal  food  of  the  river 
trout  during  the  spawning  season  of  the  half-dozen 
kinds  of  salmon  which  frequent  them.  In  semi-arid 
foot-hills  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  chain,  grasshoppers 
are  the  choice.  In  New  England  wasp-grubs  and  lob- 
worms are  favorites.  In  Maine  lakes  the  smelt  is  a 
dainty  bait.  In  Pennsylvania  "  curly  jukes,"  or  water- 
shrimps,  are  attractive.  On  the  Jordan,  in  Michigan, 
a  bug  contrived  of  a  lump  of  squirrel  meat  with  trout 
fins  for  wings  made  an  effective  lure  in  lumber  days  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago.  At  other  times  and  places 
cut  bait,  trout  eyes  and  fins,  pennyroyal  buds,  and  bits 
of  red  flannel  will  catch  fish.  All  the  same,  artificial 
flies  are  killing  wherever  one  goes,  and  will  move  a 
trout  at  one  time  if  not  at  another ;  so  that  it  is  beg- 
ging the  question  to  say  that  in  such  and  such  waters 
they  will  not  rise  to  the  fly.  Early  morning  and  even- 
ing is  the  best  time  to  make  the  test.  The  best  lure  at 
all  times  is  what  they  seem  to  be  feeding  on,  or  are  accus- 
tomed to  feed  upon.  This  is  an  axiom.  In  forest  pre- 
cincts flies  are  naturally  the  most  attractive  in  summer. 

IVhy  Trout  Chase  Flies. 

The  instinct  of  quest,  therefore,  prompts  the  trout 
to  pursue  and  seize  all  objects  moving  in  his  native 
element  which  attract  his  attention.     Nothing  comes 
15 


BROOK     TROUT 

amiss,  large  or  small,  be  it  chipmunk,  mouse,  frog, 
minnow,  bug,  miller,  grub,  grasshopper,  worm,  or  fly, 
without  regard  to  contour  or  color,  though  the  more 
familiar  forms  are  the  most  attractive,  especially  in  the 
season  of  the  year  when  they  propagate  and  multiply. 
Such  being  the  case,  it  has  always  puzzled  me  to  know 
why  the  water-sprites  {fiepida)  and  whirligigs  (gyrm- 
/da),  which  skip  and  gyrate  all  over  the  eddies  at  the 
foot  of  waterfalls  and  dams,  are  so  singularly  exempt. 
I  have  never  detected  a  trout  in  an  attempt  to  seize 
one  of  these  long-shanked  and  steel-clad  harlequins, 
and  the  insects  in  question  seem  to  have  no  fear  of 
the  trout.  Why  is  this  thus  *?  Are  the  things  poison- 
ous, or  indigestible?  or  are  their  toenails  sharp,  like 
the  Irishman's  humming-bird  *? 

Bait  and  Fly. 

Some  professionals  delight  to  declare  that  they  never 
fish  for  trout  except  with  flies,  as  if  that  indicated  the 
thoroughbred.  Well  ?  I  grant  that  fly-fishing  is  the 
kindlier,  gentler,  and  cleaner  practice,  though  I  think 
the  advantages  of  the  two  methods  are  about  equally 
balanced,  if  one  is  to  consider  conditions,  seasons,  and 
opportunities,  and  the  other  incidentals  outlined  in  the 
books.  One  will  often  carry  where  the  other  fails. 
It  is  not  beyond  depth  to  say  that  if  the  soi  disant  fly- 
caster  sticks  doggedly  to  his  high  perch,  despising  the 
other,  he  will  some  day  have  to  depend  on  his  camp 
companion  to  feed  the  frying-pan.     There  are  lots  of 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

fake  anglers,  especially  at  the  tournaments.  There 
are  prize-winners  at  the  score  who  are  dunces  on  the 
riverside. 

But  what  is  fly-fishing  in  esse  ?  I  am  always  shy  of 
the  angler  who  talks  of  the  advantage  of  shotting  his 
fly  and  letting  it  sink  a  foot  or  two.  That  man  is  not 
a  fly-fisher  in  fact.  Why?  Well,  what  is  a  fly*?  Is 
it  an  insect  which  dives,  lives  under  water,  and  sinks 
to  the  bottom  like  a  corpse  over  the  ship's  side  at  sea  ? 
Oh,  no  I  A  fly  is  a  creature  of  the  upper  air,  now 
touching  the  surface  of  the  water,  anon  soaring  aloft, 
here  an  instant  and  gone  the  next,  restless  as  a  hum- 
ming-bird, and  seldom  still.  Why,  the  shotted  fly 
has  not  even  the  attributes  of  a  beetle,  or  grasshopper, 
or  any  other  clumsy  insect  which  happens  to  have 
wings.  It  has  no  buoyancy  or  life.  It  cannot  rise  or 
even  maintain  itself  on  the  surface  unless  the  current 
be  swift.  It  is  inanimate  and  dead.  Fly-fishing  in- 
deed I  Why,  man  alive  I  fly-fishing  is  an  art  which 
brooks  no  compromise.  Cross  it  with  other  methods, 
and  you  have  a  nonentity,  if  not  a  sterile  hybrid.  In 
the  same  category  I  place  all  automatic  devices  and 
combination  baits.  Such  mechanical  "jacks-at-all- 
trades"  simply  demoralize  the  true  angler  and  kill 
genius.  They  are  inventions  of  necessity  and  not  of 
sport.  Now,  may  the  reader  pardon  me  I  as  this  paper 
was  not  intended  to  be  a  dissertation  on  angling  tech- 
nology, but  a  general  description  of  the  trout  family, 
and  his  idiosyncrasies.     Summarily,  the  essence  of  the 

17 


BROOK     TROUT 

art  called  gentle  is  to  know  how  to  find  the  trout  first, 
and  then  to  present  the  lure  as  naturally  as  possible, 
without  occasioning  alarm.  The  sequence  comes  with 
the  play  on  the  line  ;  the  reward  with  the  heavy  basket. 

FisJiermaits  Luck. 

Questions  repeatedly  present  themselves  to  the  craft 
in  this  wise  :  Given  an  abounding  trout  stream,  why 
does  the  catch  vary  so  much  with  equal  experts  % 
And  why  do  not  all  the  likely  places  on  a  pond  or 
stream  pan  out  alike  ?  Why  do  we  catch  a  dozen  fish 
in  one  hole  and  only  one  or  two,  or  none,  in  another 
equally  promising'?  Why  will  one  angler  whip  a 
stream  successfully  and  his  partner  come  home  light? 
Or,  of  two  men  in  a  boat,  why  will  one  take  ten  fish 
to  the  other's  none '?  Is  it  not  because  the  laws  of  as- 
sociation govern  the  streams,  as  well  as  the  forest  and 
field,  or  even  human  communities  ?  Accordingly,  we 
find  hermits,  guerillas,  wayfarers,  and  coteries  among 
trout,  as  well  as  communities  and  schools.  Trout 
have  their  social  sets  and  their  upper  ten.  There  are 
royal  nibs  on  every  stream  who  appropriate  the  choic- 
est feeding-places  and  the  securest  holes  under  the 
bank,  dominating  the  smaller  fish  and  keeping  them 
upstream  in  the  shallow  waters.  If  your  angler  hap- 
pens to  strike  a  school  or  a  Newport  set,  he  is  O.K. 
Again,  in  lakes  and  ponds  it  makes  every  difference  in 
the  fisherman's  luck  whether  his  end  of  the  boat  or  raft 
lies  over  the  ledge,  or  off  it,  or  over  its  edge,  or  whether 

i8 


GENERAL     DESCRIPTION 

he  drops  his  line  in  the  clear  cold  spring-holes  where 
the  assembled  trout  wave  their  fins  contentedly,  or 
casts  his  lure  over  the  mud  bottoms  and  weedy  flats. 

With  these  few  hints,  I  leave  the  unsophisticated 
reader  to  his  reflections,  and  the  wiseacres  to  kindly 
criticism.  It  is  never  well  to  crowd  a  stream ;  for 
crossed  lines  never  cement  good-fellowship. 


19 


BIG  TROUT  OF 
THE  NEPIGON, 
LAKE  EDWARD, 
LAKE  BATISCAN, 
ETC. 

lONTEMPLATIVE    men 

who  love  quietness  and  virtue 
and  to  go  a-fishing,  attain  to 
such  famiharity  with  the  works 
of  Nature,  that  it  would  indeed  be 
strange  if  each  succeeding  generation 
of  anglers  did  not  make  some  advance 
from  the  previous  store  of  scientific 
knowledge  pertaining  to  the  interesting 
subjects  of  fish  and  fishing.  For  it  is 
as  true  in  our  day  as  in  those  in  which  Walton  wrote 
and  fished,  that  angling  is  "  so  like  the  mathematics 
that  it  can  never  be  fully  learned ;  at  least  not  so 
fully  but  that  there  will  still  be  more  new  experiments 
left  for  the  trial  of  other  men  that  succeed  us." 

Indefatigable  industry  and  rare,  ripe  scholarship  have 
been  devoted  to   its  literature,  and  though  the  art  is 
23 


BROOK     TROUT 

not  to  be  taught  by  book,  yet  it  teaches  many  things 
itself  which  are  not  so  easily  learned  in  any  other 
school.  And  since  many  men  of  great  wisdom,  learn- 
ing, and  experience  now  practise  this  art,  scientific 
accuracy  demands  that  I  should  modify  the  title  of 
this  little  treatise,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  frankly 
avowing,  even  at  the  risk  of  a  solecism,  that  neither 
big  trout,  nor  little  trout,  nor  trout  of  any  kind  what- 
ever are  to  be  found,  either  in  Lake  Edward,  Lake 
Nepigon,  or  Lake  Batiscan ;  or,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
in  any  of  the  meres,  or  lakes,  or  rivers,  of  which  it  is 
my  pleasant  recreation  to  converse  with  the  brethren 
of  the  Angle. 

The  ever-beautiful  fish  of  these  waters,  whose  sci- 
entific name  is  Salvelhms  fontinalis,  has  been  called  a 
trout,  it  is  true,  ever  since  it  became  known  to  the 
first  European  settlers  of  its  environment.  It  came  by 
its  vernacular  name,  says  Professor  Prince,  through  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers;  who,  when  they  first  saw  it  in  New 
England,  mistook  it  for  the  same  fish  which  they  had 
known  in  their  own  Devonshire  streams,  and  which 
it  resembles  in  size,  form,  and  other  characteristics, 
although  materially  differing  from  it  in  structure,  and 
especially  in  the  essentially  distinguishing  trait  of  the 
arrangement  of  teeth  upon  the  vomer.  The  new- 
comers were  evidently  delighted  to  think  that  the 
rivers  in  the  new  land,  like  those  of  the  old,  were 
trout  streams,  and  they  gave  the  fish  found  in  them 
the  name  that  most  nearly  reminded  them  of  a  form 

24 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

which  existed  in  the  mother  country,  notwithstanding 
some  external  differences,  such,  for  instance,  as  those 
in  the  coloration  of  the  spots. 

The  fact  that  this  charming  so-called  trout  of  Amer- 
ican waters  is  not  a  true  Salmo,  but  a  char,  need  not, 
it  has  well  been  said,  occasion  any  sorrow  to  the  angler 
or  to  the  lover  of  the  attractive  fish,  since  all  the  mem- 
bers of  this  group  of  salmonoids  are  noted  not  only 
for  their  beauty  and  grace,  but  also  for  their  game 
qualities;  and  an  eminent  ichthyologist  has  declared 
that  "  no  higher  praise  can  be  given  to  a  salmonoid 
than  to  call  it  a  char." 

Whatever  disappointment  may  be  caused  the  Amer- 
ican disciple  of  the  gentle  Isaak,  by  the  knowledge  that 
the  trout  of  the  "Complete  Angler"  is  a  different  fish 
ivomfontinab's,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Walton 
pays  quite  a  compliment  to  the  char,  testifying  to  its 
"  high  esteem  with  persons  of  great  note."  The  dear 
old  Master  Angler  was  wrong  in  his  supposition  that 
this  special  Salvelinus  was  only  to  be  found  in  Lake 
Windermere,  for  it  is  now  known  to  exist  in  many  of 
the  other  lakes  of  the  British  Isles,  and  the  same  vari- 
ety is  said  to  have  been  recognized  in  some  of  the 
waters  of  continental  Europe.  Though  an  exceedingly 
handsome  fish,  like  our  own  fontinalis^  Walton's  char 
neither  attains  to  the  size  of  its  close  congener  of  the 
New  World,  nor  yet  affords  as  good  sport  to  the 
angler ;  only  rarely  taking  the  fly,  and  being  usually 
caught  by  trolling  with  a  minnow,  on  a  long  line,  sunk 
25 


BROOK     TROUT 

deep  in  the  water.  Our  own  beautiful  char  may 
never  succeed  in  throwing  off  its  domestic  appellation 
of  speckled  trout,  or  American  brook  trout,  and  since 
this  is  so,  and  that  a  rose  by  any  other  name  smells 
just  as  sweet,  I  shall,  for  convenience  sake,  make  use 
of  such  common  name,  as  many  others  now  do,  who 
have  no  more  intention  or  desire  than  I  have  to  inti- 
mate that  this  favorite  fish  is  really  a  trout,  or  anything 
more  or  less  than  a  char,  and  one  of  the  most  elegant, 
most  gamy,  and  in  every  way  most  desirable  mem- 
bers of  that  highly  favored  species. 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  has  left  us  a  description  of  the 
leading  type  of  the  European  char,  from  which  we 
may  glean  some  idea  of  its  brilliant  coloring,  though 
British  testimony  is  not  wanting  to  establish  the  fact 
that,  in  the  richness  of  its  livery,  it  still  falls  short  of 
the  glorious  apparel  of  the  American  brook  trout.  In 
fact,  no  purely  British  fish,  says  the  author  of  a  paper 
in  Blachcood's  on  "  Fontinalis  in  Scotland,"  can  boast 
the  hues  which  deck  the  fontinalis.  Never,  he  says, 
have  we  seen  such  gorgeous  and  brilliant  coloring  in 
any  finny  creature,  excepting,  perhaps,  in  some  ot 
the  quaint  tropical  varieties  from  the  Caribbean  Sea^ 
which  are  shown  to  the  traveller  by  negro  fishermen 
in  Jamaica. 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  had  no  personal  knowledge  of 
our  American  brook  trout,  and  it  is  therefore  not  sur- 
prising to  read  that  he  had  never  seen  more  beautiful 
fish  than  the  European  char,  "  which,  when  in  perfect 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

season,  have  the  lower  fins  and  the  belly  of  the  brightest 
vermilion,  with  a  white  line  on  the  outside  of  the  pec- 
toral, ventral,  anal,  and  lower  part  of  the  caudal  fin,  and 
with  vermilion  spots,  surrounded  by  the  bright  olive 
shade  of  the  sides  and  back."     Those  who  have  been 


privileged  to  examine  the  brilliant  flaming  red  bands 
upon  the  lower  part  of  the  sides  of  some  of  Canada's 
Alpine  char,  in  the  spawming  season,  and  especially  of 
the  newly  named  Scilvelimis  Oquassa  Marstonii^  will  see 
that  there  is  a  close  resemblance  between  the  appear- 
ance of  some  of  the  American  and  European  chars, 
though  beautiful  as  all  of  these  are,  no  other  one  of  them 


BROOK     TROUT 


that  has  yet  been  described  is  arrayed  in  such  shades  ot 
oHve  and  purple  and  crimson  and  gold,  as  the  large 
specimens  ot"  fontinalis  found  in  the  cool,  clear  waters  of 
Northern  Maine  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

Let  us  carefully  examine  a  newly  caught  specimen 
of  the  Lake  Edward  trout,  fresh  from  the  rapids  of  the 
River  Jeannotte — the  outlet  of  the  big  lake — where  its 
monster  fish  descend  in  the  latter  part  of  August,  in 
search  of  their  spawning-beds.  During  the  heat  of  the 
midsummer  months  we  angle  in  vain  for  this  beautiful 
creature  upon  the  surface  of  the  water.  After  the  man- 
ner of  his  near  kinsman,  the  char  of  Windermere  and 
Geneva— &z/iv///;^/j-  Alpinus — the  gay  cavalier  seeks  the 
cool  depths  of  the  spring-fed  lake,  whence  the  most 
deftly  cast  flies  fail  to  attract  him.  Minnows  compose 
his  daily  menu,  and  with  a  cool  summer-resort  and 
plenty  of  good  food,  he  has  no  inclination  to  trouble 
himself  with  what  is  disturbing  the  surface  of  the  water. 
In  the  comparatively  swift  rapids  of  the  picturesque 
discharge,  fontinalis,  finding  no  minnows  upon  which  to 
feed,  is  successfully  tempted  by  the  fluttering  fly  to 
"  spring  from  the  deep  and  try  aerial  ways."  Here  the 
giant  specimens  of  the  Lake  Edward  char,  which  attain 
a  size  rarely  to  be  met  in  running  water,  rise  freely  to 
the  artificial  lures  which  were  cast  in  vain  over  the 
bosom  of  the  lake.  Here,  too,  as  in  the  Nepigon  and 
the  Montmorenci,  at  this  season  of  the  year,  the  Ameri- 
can brook  trout  is  found  in  his  most  gorgeous  apparel. 
His  whole  being  is  aflame  with  burning  passion  and 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

nuptial  desire,  which  reveal  themselves  in  the  fiery 
flushes  of  deepest  crimson  upon  his  shapely  sides  and 
lower  fins.  The  creamy  white  margins  of  the  pectoral, 
anal,  and  ventral  fins  distinctly  mark  the  course  of  the 
fish  in  the  dark  water,  and  form  a  striking  contrast  to 
his  olive-colored  and  vermiculated  back  and  dorsal  fin. 
Here,  he  has  caught  the  varying  tints  of  the  submerged 
rocks,  and  of  the  forest-clad  mountains  which  form  the 
basin  of  the  lake,  and  in  the  brilliant  brocade  of  his 
spotted  sides  he  reflects  the  gold  of  the  setting  sun,  and 
the  purple  sheen  of  the  distant  hills.  The  partner  of 
his  spawning  joys  and  sorrows  lacks  much  of  his  flaming 
indication  of  sexual  ambition,  but  is  shapely  and  jewel- 
bedecked  and  beautiful  beyond  compare.  If  even  Sol- 
omon in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these 
richly  colored  spawning  males,  the  female  fish,  with  the 
brilliant  silver  of  its  burnished  sides,  marked  with 
orange  and  purple  spots — their  centres  often  dotted  with 
crimson — is  the  very  embodiment  of  grace  and  beauty. 

Unlike  some  of  the  fickle  fair  amongst  the  fishes  of 
Oppian's  Halieutics,  the  big  trout  of  these  northern 
lakes  are  always  found  in  couples  upon  the  spawning- 
beds,  and  so  closely  attendant  are  they  upon  each 
other's  movements,  that  the  spouse  of  a  hooked  fish 
may  often  be  seen  swimming  around  the  struggling 
captive,  as  though  anxious  to  aid  it  to  be  free,  and  has 
sometimes  been  taken  in  the  same  landing-net. 

During  the  latter  half  of  August  and  the  whole  of 
September,  these  large  fish  rise  very  freely  to  ordinary 
29 


J5  ROOK     T  R  O  U  T 

trout  flies  in  the  Jeannotte,  and  have  been  taken  there 
over  seven  pounds  in  weight.  Fish  from  two  to  five 
pounds  are  quite  common  in  all  the  upper  pools  of  the 
river  at  this  season,  and  sometimes  the  angler  may  enjoy 
the  sport  of  playing  two  or  three  of  them  at  the  same 
time.  They  are  extremely  gamy,  and  often  break  water 
several  times  before  being  brought  to  net.  In  spring 
and  summer,  not  one  of  these  large  fish  is  to  be  found 
in  the  stream,  though  there  are  plenty  of  fingerlings 
ready  to  seize  the  angler's  flies.  The  big  fellows  are 
all  in  the  big  lake.  They  grow  big  because  of  the 
large  extent  of  spring-fed  water  in  which  they  roam, 
and  also  because  of  the  abundant  food  supply  furnished 
them  by  the  innumerable  shoals  of  minnows. 

The  lack  of  much  insect  food  for  fish  at  Lake  Ed- 
ward is  perhaps  responsible  for  the  habits  of  its  trout. 
At  all  events,  the  large  ones  are  not  to  be  seduced  by 
insect  lures  until  they  withdraw  to  the  shallower  water 
of  the  spawning-beds  in  the  stream  below.  In  spring- 
time they  often  come  pretty  near  to  the  surface  of  the 
lake,  when  they  chase  the  vast  shoals  of  minnows  into 
somewhat  shallow  water.  The  frightened  little  fish 
fly  by  thousands  in  front  of  their  pursuers,  and  as  they 
spring  into  the  air  and  fall  back  into  the  lake,  the  splash 
that  they  make  resembles  the  sound  of  a  heavy  fall  of 
hail.  A  live  minnow  is  a  good  bait,  and  catches  of 
four  and  five  pound  fish  are  of  daily  occurrence  here 
in  the  spring  of  the  year.  Worms  and  other  ordinary 
bait  are  used  with  good  result,  and  so  are  mice,  frogs, 
30 


^ 


l*J 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

and  even  pieces  of  pork.  Trolling,  either  with  the 
spoon,  the  phantom  minnow,  or  a  dead-fish  bait,  is  also 
very  successful.  These  monster  char  will  readily  take 
a  very  large  size  pike-spoon,  and  will  not  even  refuse 
to  make  a  meal  of  the  young  of  their  own  species. 

In  all  probability  there  are  larger  fish  in  Lake  Ed- 
ward than  any  that  have  been  taken  out  of  it,  and  if 
reliance  can  be  placed  upon  the  stories  of  the  big  ones 
which  have  been  hooked  and  lost  there,  the  size  of  its 
speckled  trout  is  not  exceeded  in  any  Canadian  stream 
or  lake. 

Throughout  the  northern  part  of  the  continent  there 
are  a  series  of  favored  waters  where  gigantic  specimens 
o{ Sahelinus  fontinalis,  at  least  equalling  those  caught  in 
Lake  Edward,  in  size  and  gorgeousness  of  coloring,  and 
sometimes  exceeding  them  in  gameness,  are  still  to  be 
found.  These  lakes  and  rivers  are  situated,  for  the  most 
part,  amid  the  mountains  of  the  Laurentian  chain,  which 
extends  from  the  north  of  Lake  Superior  to  the  sea-coast 
of  Labrador,  though  some  of  them  occur  on  the  north 
of  the  water-shed  dividing  the  waters  of  Hudson's  Bay 
from  those  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  Much  confu- 
sion has  been  caused  by  the  application  of  the  name 
"  trout,"  as  well  to  the  namaycush  or  christivomer  as  to 
Satcelinus  fojithialis,  and  many  reports  of  large  trout  in 
northern  waters  have  been  found,  upon  investigation,  to 
refer  to  the  so-called  gray  or  lake  trout,  or  namaycush. 
Speckled  trout  of  three  to  nine  pounds  in  weight  are 
reported,  however,  to  have  been  taken  in  nets  in  Lake 
31 


BROOK     TROUT 

Wahwanichi,  a  beautiful  mere  about  the  size  of  Lake 
Edward,  namely,  twenty  miles  long  by  one  to  three 
wide. 

In  the  Hamilton  River,  above  the  Grand  Falls,  in  the 
interior  of  Labrador,  there  is,  according  to  Mr.  Low,  the 
well-known  explorer,  the  finest  trout-fishing  in  Canada 
— all  large  fish,  none  under  three  pounds,  and  from  this 
to  seven  pounds,  and  plenty  of  them  in  all  the  rapids. 

Several  of  the  rivers  flowing  from  the  north  into  Lake 
Superior  also  contain  very  large  trout.  Professor  Ram- 
say Wright,  of  the  University  of  Toronto,  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  specimens  of  Salvelinus  fontinalis 
have  been  secured  in  the  Nepigon  up  to  seventeen 
pounds  in  weight.  Accessibility  to  an  abundant  food 
supply  and  a  deep  cold-water  habitat  contribute  very 
materially  to  the  rapid  growth  of  all  the  trouts  and  chars, 
and  the  Nepigon  River  and  the  lakes  by  which  it  is  fed 
contain  large  quantities  of  whitefish,  while  the  water 
is  so  cold  that  its  average  summer  temperature  is  not 
much  above  forty  degrees.  The  fish  have  therefore  no 
reason  to  keep  down  in  the  lowest  depths  of  the  river, 
and  they  consequently  rise  freely  to  the  angler's  flies. 
The  best  fishing  is  to  be  had  there  from  the  middle  of 
July  through  the  months  of  August  and  September. 
The  river  is  rather  more  than  thirty  miles  long  to  the 
Great  Lake  Nepigon  at  its  head,  and  is  broken  by  fit- 
teen  chutes  or  falls,  at  the  foot  of  all  of  which  there  is 
excellent  fishing.  The  average  width  of  the  river  is 
two  hundred  yards,  but  it  has  several  large  lake  expan- 
32 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

sions,  and  its  depth  is  from  twenty  to  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet.  Fontinalis  has  consequently  ample  scope 
here  for  the  display  of  all  his  fighting  qualities.  Pro- 
fessor Wright's  estimate  of  the  size  of  the  Nepigon  fish 
is  probably  based  upon  reports  of  several  years  ago, 
when  none  but  Indians  fished  the  river,  and  there  are 
many  modern  authorities  for  the  killing  of  nine  and  ten 
pound  brook  trout  in  its  waters.  The  standard  flies  for 
the  Nepigon  are  the  professor,  queen  of  the  water, 
grizzly  king,  gray  and  green  drakes,  Montreal,  silver 
doctor,  coachman,  and  hackles.  Even  Nepigon  has  its 
off  days  for  the  fly-fisher,  however,  and  upon  these  the 
phantom  minnow  usually  does  good  work,  though  it  is 
a  question  whether  the  use  of  any  other  lure  than  flies 
should  not  be  prohibited  upon  this  magnificent  stream, 
which  has  already  become  considerably  deteriorated. 

The  Michipicoten,  the  Jack  Pine,  and  other  streams 
in  this  neighborhood  are  probably  but  little  inferior  to 
the  Nepigon,  and  it  is  by  no  means  uncommon  to  take 
brook  trout  in  all  of  them  up  to  five  pounds  in  weight. 

Not  only  in  the  country  north  of  the  St.  Lawrence  are 
large  brook  trout  to  be  found.  Six  and  seven  pound 
specimens  have  been  caught  in  some  of  the  rivers  and 
lakes  of  the  Squatteck  country,  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake 
Temiscouata,  which  is  not  far  from  the  boundary  of 
New  Brunswick ;  while  others,  nearly  as  bulky,  occur 
in  the  preserves  of  the  Megantic  Fish  and  Game  As- 
sociation, on  either  side  of  the  Maine  and  Quebec 
boundary  line. 

33 


BROOK     TROUT 


What  was  supposed  to  have  been  a  record  fish,  at 
the  time,  was  assigned  the  place  ot  honor  in  the  de- 
partment of  Fish  and  Fisheries  at  the  Centennial  Ex- 
hibition in  Philadelphia.     After  it  had  been  some  time 


dead  it  turned  the  scales  at  ten  pounds.  Professor 
Spencer  F.  Baird  and  Professor  Agassiz  are  both  said 
to  have  given  it  as  their  opinion  that  when  freshly 
taken  this  trout  weighed  at  least  eleven  and  a  half 
pounds.  It  measured  thirty  inches  in  length  and 
eighteen  in  circumference,  and  was  caught  in  October, 

34 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

1867,  in  one  of  the  Rangeley  Lakes,  in  Maine.  Some 
old  anglers,  and  many  younger  ones  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  literature  of  the  subject,  will  recall 
the  excitement  which  broke  out  in  the  angling  world 
of  America  in  1863,  when  Mr.  George  Shepard  Page, 
of  New  York  City,  returned  from  a  trip  to  the  Range- 
leys,  bringing  with  him  eight  brook  trout  weighing 
from  eight  down  to  five  and  a  half  pounds  each. 
Scores  of  letters  were  sent  to  the  papers  which  had 
presumed  to  call  these  fish  brook  trout — some  of  them 
interrogative,  more  denunciatory,  others  theoretical, 
and  some,  again,  flatly  contradictory.  The  Adiron- 
dacks  had  never  yielded  a  brook  trout  which  weighed 
more  than  five  pounds,  and  that,  therefore,  must  be  the 
standard  of  brook  trout  the  world  over.  But  Mr. 
Page  had  foreseen  the  violent  scepticism  which  was 
sure  to  manifest  itself,  and  had  sent  one  of  his  seven- 
pounders  to  Professor  Agassiz,  who  speedily  replied 
that  these  monster  trout  were  genuine  specimens  of 
the  so-called  speckled  or  brook  trout  family,  and  that 
they  were  only  found  in  large  numbers  in  the  lakes  and 
streams  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Androscoggin  River 
in  Northwestern  Maine.  The  big  trout  of  Lake  Ed- 
ward, of  the  Nepigon,  of  Lake  Batiscan,  Lake  Jacques 
Cartier,  and  other  Canadian  waters,  were  evidently  un- 
known to  Professor  Agassiz  at  that  time,  or  he  cer- 
tainly would  never  have  attempted  to  so  limit  the 
occurrence  of  the  monster  char.  Many  of  the  heavy 
trout  killed  in  the  same  waters  during  the  next  few 


BROOK     TROUT 

years  were  caught  upon  trolling  lines,  though  some 
very  large  ones  rose  to  the  fly,  and  Mr.  Henry  O. 
Stanley,  of  Dixfield,  now  and  for  over  thirty  years  past 
one  of  the  Fish  Commissioners  of  the  State  of  Maine, 
has  a  record  of  several  hundred  brook  trout  taken  with 
the  fly,  and  running  from  three  to  nine  and  a  half 
pounds  each. 

Lake  Batiscan,  which  is  noted  for  its  large  trout,  is 
about  midway  between  the  city  of  Quebec  and  Lake 
St.  John,  and  only  a  few  miles  distant  from  the  line  of 
the  railway.  Dean  Robbins,  of  Albany,  N.  Y. ;  Dr. 
Robert  M.  Lawrence,  of  Lexington,  Mass.,  and  a  num- 
ber of  friends  secured  twelve  brook  trout  in  Lake 
Batiscan  in  1895",  whose  aggregate  weight  was  sev- 
enty-two pounds.  The  dean  caught,  by  trolling,  an 
eight  and  a  quarter  pound  trout,  and  another  of  the 
party  one  of  eight  and  a  half  pounds.  The  latter  was 
twenty-six  inches  long  and  seventeen  in  girth.  The 
Hon.  W.  B.  Kirk,  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  has  to  his  credit 
a  nine-pound  trout  taken  from  the  same  lake.  Mr. 
Alfred  Harmsworth,  proprietor  of  the  London  Daily 
Mail,  saw  a  number  of  seven  and  eight  pound  fish 
from  this  lake  at  the  Garrison  Club,  in  Quebec,  in 
1894,  and  guessed  their  average  weight  at  ten  pounds, 
as  related  at  the  time  by  the  late  Mr.  A.  N.  Cheney^ 
in  the  columns  of  Forest  and  Stream.  Almost  all  the 
waters  of  the  Triton  Tract,  in  which  Lake  Batiscan  is 
situated,  are  noted  for  the  large  size  of  the  fontinalis 
which  inhabit  them.  The  late  Colonel  A.  L.  Light 
36 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

killed  fourteen  trout  in  one  hour  on  the  tract  in  1892, 
their  total  weight  being  forty-five  pounds.  Mr.  Che- 
ney and  Mr.  W.  F.  Rathbone,  of  Albany,  took  twenty- 
five  speckled  trout  in  the  Moise  River,  on  the  fly,  in 
September,  1897,  which  weighed  in  all  101  pounds. 
Ten  of  Mr.  Cheney's  fish  weighed  forty-five  pounds 
and  ten  of  Mr.  Rathbone's  forty-one  pounds. 

Except  in  the  fall  of  the  year  many  of  the  heaviest 
trout  caught  in  lakes  are  undoubtedly  taken  upon 
the  troll.  Even  those  that  are  killed  upon  a  fly 
often  seize  it  as  it  is  trolled  behind  a  boat.  One  of 
the  flies  used  in  angling  for  these  heavy  fish  is  the 
coarse  bunch  of  hair  known  as  the  moose-tail  fly.  It 
is  usually  trolled  some  distance  under  the  water. 

The  Lake  Batiscan  trout  are  exceptionally  hand- 
some fish.  They  are  almost  always  in  good  condition. 
So,  too,  are  those  of  the  Montmorenci  River,  which 
are  among  the  most  gamy  specimens  known  to  Can- 
adian anglers.  They  feed  and  fatten  largely  upon  in- 
sect food,  and  hence  grow  strong  and  lusty  as  well  as 
bold  and  gamy.  All  fish-culturists  know  how  supe- 
rior in  coloring  of  flesh,  in  flavor,  and  in  gameness  are 
those  trout  and  chars  which  feed  upon  flies  or  Crus- 
tacea. 

Mr.  Stoddart,  in  his  "  Art  of  Angling  as  Practised 
in  Scotland,"  mentions  an  interesting  experiment  made 
with  trout,  some  years  ago,  in  the  south  of  England,  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  value  of  different  food.  Fish 
were  placed  in  three  separate  tanks,  one  of  which  was 


BROOK     TROUT 


supplied  daily  with  worms,  another  with  live  minnows, 
and  the  third  with  those  small  dark-colored  water-flies 
which  are  to  be  found  moving  about  on  the  surface 
under  banks  and  sheltered  places.  The  trout  fed 
with  worms  grew  slowly,  and  had  a  lean  appearance ; 
those  nourished  on  minnows — which  it  was  observed, 
they  darted  at  with  great  voracity — became  much 
larger ;  while  such  as  were  fattened  upon  flies  only, 
attained  in  a  short  time  prodigious  dimensions,  weigh- 
ing twice  as  much  as  both  the  others  together,  although 
the  quantity  of  food  swallowed  by  them  was  in  no- 
wise so  great. 

Lanman  has  stated  that  one  principal  cause  of  the 
great  variety  in  color  of  the  brook  trout  is  the  differ- 
ence of  food;  such  as  live  upon  fresh-water  shrimps 
and  other  Crustacea  are  the  brightest ;  those  which 
feed  upon  May-flies  and  other  aquatic  insects  are  the 
next ;  and  those  which  feed  upon  worms  are  the  dull- 
est of  all.  Trout  which  feed  much  upon  larvae  (Phry- 
ganidi£)  and  their  cases  are  not  only  red  in  flesh  but 
they  become  golden  in  hue  and  the  red  spots  increase 
in  number. 

Professor  Agassiz  has  said  "  the  most  beautiful  trout 
are  found  in  waters  which  abound  in  Crustacea ;  direct 
experiments  having  shown  that  the  intensity  of  the 
red  colors  of  their  flesh  depends  upon  the  quantity  of 
Gajnmarida  (fresh-water  shrimps)  which  they  have 
devoured." 

Mr.  Cheney  once   wrote  that  "  fishes  are  probably 
38 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

creatures  of  habit  as  well  as  man,  and  if  they  are  sup- 
plied only  with  food  which  is  found  at  the  bottom, 
they  will  look  to  the  bottom  for  it  and  not  look  to  the 
surface,  where  the  angler  casts  his  flies;  so  the  food 
question  is  one  that  relates,  more  than  anything  else, 
to  the  condition  of  the  fish,  as  their  habits  may  be 
changed  by  a  change  of  food  that  causes  them  to  look 
up  for  it  rather  than  down." 

This  constant  looking  down  for  their  food  in  the 
depths  of  Lake  Edward  no  doubt  accounts  for  the 
general  refusal  of  its  trout  to  rise  to  surface  lures. 

In  the  Montmorenci,  some  twenty  to  thirty  miles 
above  its  famous  falls  ;  in  the  Ouiatchouan,  the  stream 
which  carries  the  surplus  waters  of  Lake  Bouchette 
into  Lake  St.  John ;  in  La  Belle  Riviere,  and  in  other 
northern  waters  that  might  be  mentioned,  fontinalis 
feeds  largely  upon  insect  food,  and  six  and  seven 
pound  specimens  have  not  infrequently  fallen  victims 
to  the  fly-fisherman's  skill. 

Space  forbids  lengthy  reference  to  the  huge  trout  of 
the  great  lake  Jacques  Cartier,  a  splendid  body  of 
water  now  hidden  in  the  almost  impenetrable  depths 
of  the  Canadian  forest ;  but  those  familiar  with  the 
works  of  Mr.  John  Burroughs  will  recall  the  story, 
in  "Locusts  and  Wild  Honey,"  of  the  six-pounder 
taken  by  him  at  the  very  source  of  the  Jacques  Car- 
tier  River,  when  there  was  then  a  passable  road  for  a 
buckboard  from  Quebec  to  the  lake.  Since  the  build- 
ing of  the  railway  to  Lake  St.  John  this  pathway  has 

39 


BROOK     TROUT 

become  so  deserted  that  it  is  in  parts  quite  overgrown 
with  shrubbery,  while  many  of  its  bridges  have  en- 
tirely disappeared. 

A  pack-horse  may  get  through  to  the  big  lake,  and 
here,  in  its  discharge,  and  in  Lac  des  Neiges,  only  a 
few  miles  distant  from  it,  are  to  be  found  some  of  the 
best  waters  still  open  to  anglers  in  which  the  big  red 
trout  of  Canada  may  be  fished  for,  and  may  be  caught, 
too,  if  good  luck  wait  upon  the  angler's  efforts.  The 
autumn  fishing  is  surer,  here,  than  any  other,  and  Sep- 
tember is  the  best  month  to  go.  But  the  lakes  men- 
tioned, as  well  as  all  the  upper  course  of  the  Jacques 
Cartier  River,  are  comprised  in  the  Government  pre- 
serve known  as  the  Laurentides  National  Park,  which 
occupies  much  of  the  interior  of  the  country  between 
the  Saguenay  and  the  Quebec  &  Lake  St.  John  Rail- 
way. The  Government  guards  this  preserve  itself  and 
charges  $i  per  day  for  the  right  of  fishing  its  waters, 
and  $1  for  the  use  of  canoes  and  camping  equipment. 
Guides  cost  $1.50  and  $1.25  per  day  each.  Owing  to 
the  rapid  nature  of  the  Jacques  Cartier  River  in  the 
upper  part  of  its  course,  and  to  its  extremely  wild,  pre- 
cipitous cliffs,  it  is  dangerous  and  well  nigh  impossible 
to  ascend  it  to  its  source,  but  good  trout-fishing  may 
be  had  in  some  of  the  waters  that  may  be  reached  by 
canoes.  A  drive  of  thirty  miles  from  Quebec  over 
good  country  roads  brings  the  angler  to  a  farm-house, 
where  he  may  obtain  lodging  and  guides,  close  to  the 
boundary  of  the  park,  and  a  few  hours'  poling  up- 


40 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

Stream  brings  him  to  good  fishing  grounds.  The  after- 
noon of  the  second  day  should  find  him  at  pools  where 
three  and  four  pound  trout  have  been  taken,  and  if  he 
prefers  a  shorter  trip  he  may  enjoy  good  sport  in  the 
Sauteriski,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Jacques  Car- 
tier,  which  has  yielded  five-pound  trout  in  the  month 
of  September.  Licenses  to  fish  in  the  park,  which 
covers  over  a  million  and  a  half  of  acres,  and  all  other 
information  respecting  it  may  be  obtained  from  the 
Department  of  Fish  and  Game,  at  the  Parliament  House 
in  Quebec.  Fair  fishing  may  be  had  in  the  rapids  of 
the  Jacques  Cartier  River  in  the  latter  part  of  May  and 
the  first  part  of  June,  and  though  the  largest  fish  do 
not  always  rise  to  surface  lures  in  spring-time,  trout  of 
a  good  size  are  plentiful,  and  many  anglers  prefer  to 
fight  fontinalis  in  rapid  water,  even  though  they  may 
not  secure  the  biggest  fish.  Smaller  fish  may  be  had 
all  through  the  summer  in  the  Jacques  Cartier  rapids, 
but  the  insect  pests  of  the  Canadian  forests  detract 
largely  from  the  sportsman's  enjoyment  there  during 
the  month  of  July  and  the  early  part  of  August.  The 
open  season  for  trout  in  the  province  of  Quebec  com- 
mences on  May  1st,  though  it  frequently  happens 
that  the  ice  does  not  leave  the  surface  of  the  northern 
lakes  until  several  days  later.  In  some  seasons  the 
fish  rise  as  early  as  the  5th  to  the  8th  of  May  ;  in  others 
there  is  not  much  fly-fishing  before  the  15th  of  that 
month.  July  is  an  off  month,  except  for  small  fish, 
or  for  trolling  and  bait-fishing ;  and  neither  the  last  ten 
41 


BROOK     TROUT 

days  of  June  nor  the  first  ten  or  fifteen  days  of  August 
are  as  favorable  to  the  sport  as  earUer  and  later  dates. 
The  open  season  ends  on  September  30th. 

Many  of  the  best  fishing  waters  already  mentioned 
are  entirely  controlled  by  private  clubs.  The  angling 
in  the  Jeannotte  belongs  to  the  Orleans  Fish  and 
Game  Club,  and  that  in  Lake  Batiscan,  the  river  and 
lake  Moise,  and  numerous  other  lakes  and  streams,  to 
the  Triton  Fish  and  Game  Club.  The  Stadacona  and 
Laurentide  Clubs,  of  Quebec,  own  waters  containing 
very  large  fish,  within  easy  reach  of  the  Quebec  & 
Lake  St.  John  Railway;  the  magnificent  angling  in 
the  Ouiatchouan  is  leased  to  the  Ouiatchouan  Fish 
and  Game  Club ;  the  Laurentian  Club,  which  contains 
many  New  Yorkers  in  its  membership,  owns  much 
good  water,  supplied  with  heavy  trout,  in  the  valley  of 
the  St.  Maurice,  while  the  fishing  of  the  Nepigon  is 
the  property  of  the  Government  of  Ontario,  which 
charges  a  license  fee  of  $5  to  residents  of  Canada,  and 
of  $10  to  non-residents,  for  the  right  to  two  weeks'  an- 
gling. The  fishing  in  Lake  Edward  is  virtually  free  to 
everybody,  for  it  is  leased  by  the  proprietor  of  the 
hotel  there  tor  the  accommodation  of  his  guests,  and 
visiting  sportsmen  have  no  other  place  to  stay  at  the 
lake  than  either  the  hotel  or  some  of  the  camps  on  the 
lake  shore  controlled  by  its  management.  Charges 
for  hotel  and  guides  are  quite  reasonable. 

Outside  of  those  of  the  Laurentides  National  Park, 
all  unleased  waters  belonging  to  the  Province  of  Que- 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

bee  may  be  fished  by  the  people  of  the  province,  and 
by  any  non-resident  who  pays  the  h'cense  fee  ot  $i 
per  day,  or  $io  for  the  season,  which  is  required  of  all 
those  non-resident  anglers  who  are  not  themselves 
lessees  of  Government  fishing  waters,  or  members  of 
fish  and  game  protection  clubs  holding  one  or  more 
such  leases. 

The  angler  for  the  big  brook  trout  of  Canadian 
lakes  and  rivers  may  make  choice  of  a  great  variety 
of  tackle.  I  have  had  sea-run  specimens  of  fontinalis 
no  larger  than  those  I  should  love  to  kill  on  a  five- 
ounce  rod  seize  the  fly  with  which  I  was  endeavoring 
to  raise  a  thirty-pound  salmon.  How  spitefully  have 
I  dragged  them  by  main  force  with  my  salmon-rod 
and  tackle  on  the  sloping  beach  out  of  the  water  that 
they  were  so  ruthlessly  disturbing !  At  other  times, 
and  under  different  circumstances,  I  should  have  con- 
sidered that  I  had  drawn  a  prize  out  of  the  pool.  On 
a  seven  to  nine  ounce  rod  these  freshly  run  sea  trout 
give  splendid  sport.  Many  anglers  kill  them  with 
grilse  rods,  and  enjoy  the  fun,  too. 

The  big  trout  of  inland  waters  may  be  killed  none 
too  soon  for  some  fishermen  with  just  such  tools  as 
those  already  described.  When  lighter  ones  will  do 
the  work  I  have  no  use  for  the  heavy  rods.  One  ot 
nine  ounces,  short  and  stiff,  is  not  too  heavy  for  troll- 
ing purposes.  For  bait  I  recommend  the  use  of  one 
of  seven  to  nine  ounces ;  rather  longer  than  the  troll- 
ing rod,  and  not  necessarily  quite  so  stiff.     Even  for 

43 


BROOK     TROUT 


fly-fishing  in  heavy  rapids  I  have  used  a  nine-ounce 
lancewood  rod,  ten  teet  long.  My  favorite  weapon  tor 
this  work,  however,  is  a  split  bamboo  made  by  that 
prince  of  good  fellows  and  of"  amateur  rod-makers,  Mr. 


Graham  H.  Harris,  chairman  of  the  Chicago  School 
Board.  It  weighs  seven  ounces,  is  a  beauty,  and  has 
four  or  five  pound  trout  to  its  credit.  A  five-ounce  rod 
will  do  the  work  equally  well,  but  may  take  longer 
about  it.  Though  I  have  never  handled  such  large  fish 
on  a  tool  of  this  size,  I  have  killed  one  of  three  and  a 

44 


BIG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

half  pounds  on  a  rod  that  weighed  only  as  many  ounces, 
and  that  is  very  much  the  same  thing. 

A  light  reel,  holding  not  less  than  thirty  to  thirty-five 
yards  of  fine  waterproof  line,  with  six  to  nine  feet  of 
good  single-gut  casting  and  a  few  patterns  of  the  stand- 
ard flies  already  mentioned,  will  complete  the  angler's 
outfit.  Neither  the  large  variety  of  artificial  flies  nor 
yet  the  fineness  of  workmanship  on  the  part  of  the  tier, 
recommended  by  most  angling  authorities  for  use  in 
the  small-stream  fishing  of  the  Eastern  States,  is  neces- 
sary to  the  taking  of  the  untutored,  uncivilized  fonti- 
nalis  of  the  heavy  waters  of  Northern  Canada.  Flies  tied 
upon  No.  3  and  No.  5  hooks  are  usually  not  too  large. 
Often  the  fish  rise  to  salmon  flies.  If  the  water  is  clear 
and  the  weather  warm,  and  the  smaller  sizes  are  neces- 
sary to  tempt  them,  there  need  be  no  anxiety  on  the 
score  of  the  hook  if  a  heavy  fish  is  struck,  providing 
the  quality  and  the  temper  of  the  steel  are  good.  I 
have  seen  Mr.  George  E.  Hart,  the  well-known  Water- 
bury  angler,  kill  a  thirty-pound  salmon  upon  a  fly  that 
would  not  be  considered  large  for  a  fingerling  trout. 

Every  part  of  the  tackle  should,  however,  be  thor- 
oughly tested,  for  a  four,  five,  six  or  seven  pound  trout 
is  a  wanton  warrior.  He  is  not  unlikely  to  break 
water,  though  his  leaps  as  a  rule  are  less  frequent  than 
those  of  a  smaller  relative.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there 
is  no  rule  at  all  by  which  to  judge  of  the  probable 
nature  or  outcome  of  a  fight  with  fontinalis.  His 
rushes,  when  he  feels  the  hook,  are  long  and  violent ; 


BROOK      TROUT 

he  rapidly  changes  the  scene  of  the  struggle  from  the 
bottom  of  the  water  to  the  surface  and  back  again  to 
the  bed  of  the  river  or  lake,  neglecting  no  opportunity 
of  entangling  the  line  about  stones,  or  bushes,  or  weeds, 
or  fallen  trees,  and  of  cutting  it  upon  the  rocks.  If  the 
fish  be  too  much  forced,  the  hook  may  readily  be  torn 
out  of  his  mouth.  If  he  contrives  in  the  course  of  his 
rushes  toward  the  angler  to  gain  the  slack  of  the  line, 
he  may  shake  the  hook  out  of  its  hold  and  go  free. 
Not  infrequently  the  fisherman  is  handicapped  by  a 
second  and  even  a  third  fish  seizing  one  or  other  of  the 
remaining  flies  of  the  cast,  and  in  the  see-saw  game 
which  follows  he  is  fortunate  indeed  if  he  preserves  his 
tackle  intact,  no  matter  whether  he  succeeds  or  not  in 
saving  his  whole  string  of  fish. 

The  huge  sea-going  specimens  of  fontinalis  which 
run  down  out  of  Canadian  rivers  into  the  salt  water, 
to  fatten  upon  the  flesh-pots  of  the  briny  deep  and  to 
burnish  their  mottled  sides  till  they  shine  with  a  silvery 
polish  rivalling  that  of  a  freshly  run  salmon,  are  worthy 
of  a  chapter  to  themselves.  They  are  caught  up  to 
eight  and  ten  pounds  each,  and  when  impaled  upon 
the  hook  of  the  angler  offer  just  as  good  sport  as  that 
afforded  by  grilse,  played  and  taken  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances. Many  claims  to  a  distinct  variety  have 
been  made  for  some  of  these  sea-run  specimens,  but 
Jordan  and  Evermann  have  not  yet  been  persuaded  of 
the  incorrectness  of  their  present  classification.  For 
further  details  respecting  these  and  other  Canadian 
46 


IG     TROUT     OF     THE     NEPIGON 

salmonoids  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
present  writer's  monograph  on  "AngHng 
in  Canadian  Waters,"  in  the  sumptuous 
new  work  of  Dr.  F.  M.  Johnson  now 
in  press. 

Whether  taken  out  ot  brackish  water 
in  the  estuary  ot  some  Eastern  sabnon 
river,  clad  in  silvery  sheen,  or  from  the 
deep  water  of  some  large  lake,  where 
the  fish  is  found  in  its  darkest  of  dark 
green  and  olive  and  crimson  apparel,  or 
from  the  rapid  of  a  clear,  cold  stream, 
where  its  coat  of  many  colors  rejoices 
in  the  brightest  and  most  brilliantly 
tinted  spots,  the  angler  who  feasts  his 
eyes  upon  the  newly  caught  monster 
char  of  Northern  waters  will  readily 
admit,  that,  though  God  might  have 
made  a  more  beautiful  object  than  the 
American  brook  trout,  yet  doubtless 
God  never  did,  and   his  heart  will  be 


BROOK     TROUT 


filled  with  gratitude  that  such  splendid  sport  is  within 
his  reach. 

And  when  the  hour  comes  to  fold  up  his  tent  and 
lay  away  his  fishing-rod  and  flies,  he  might  well  wish, 
like  Walton's  scholar,  for  some  somniferous  potion  to 
force  him  to  sleep  away  the  intermittent  time  until  he 
enjoys  such  sport  again— which  time  would  pass  away 
with  him  "  as  tediously  as  it  does  with  men  in  sorrow  " 
— were  he  not  a  philosopher  and  an  honest  man,  who 
honors  philosophy  by  his  virtuous  life,  and  merits  the 
friendship  of  those  who  are  lovers  of  virtue,  who  trust 
in  Providence,  who  study  to  be  quiet,  and  who  go 
an-angling. 


48 


THE   HABITS   OF 
THE    TROUT. 


THE   HABITS   OF   THE   TROUT. 


MOST  prominent  among  the  trouts — in  fact, 
of  any  of  the  American  fishes  which  the 
anglers  of  this  country  prize  as  a  quarry — is 
the  brook  or  red-spotted  trout,  Salvelinus 
fontinalis.  These  technical  appellatives  are  derived 
from  Salvelinus,  said  to  be  the  old  name  of  the  char, 
and  fontinalis,  "  living  in  springs."  Unlike  many 
other  game  fishes,  it  has  but  few  common  or  popular 
names  and  is  known  among  anglers  simply  as  the 
"  brook,  speckled  or  red-spotted  trout." 

It  is  a  pure   char    and  the  most  beautiful  of  our 
fresh-water  fauna,  the  more  so  from  the  mantle  of  rose 


BROOK     TROUT 

and  violet  which  it  wears,  the  mellow  diffusion  of 
which  from  gills  to  base  of  caudal  at  once  suggests 
the  descriptive  phrase  so  often  heard  among  anglers, 
"the  bloom  of  the  trout."  Nor  is  our  admiration  les- 
sened as  we  examine  his  clipper-built  form,  the  bright 
vermilion  dotlets  with  their  dark  -  blue  areola^  the 
strength  and  symmetry  of  his  paired  fins,  and  the  broad 
sweep  of  his  truncate  tail,  and  when  we  have  him 
hard  and  fast  upon  a  barbed  hook  and  a  springing 
rod,  we  cannot  fail  to  appreciate  his  knightly  qualities, 
his  sturdy  resistance,  and  keen  intelligence  in  his  ef- 
forts to  escape  from  the  steel. 

Premising  that  an  angler  will  recognize  on  sight 
this  brook  beauty,  aptly  and  poetically  known  as  "  the 
pride  of  the  rills  "  wherever  he  is  taken  on  a  light  rod 
and  a  dancing  fly,  we  will  now  look  into  his  home  life 
and  take  note  of  his  habits,  habitat,  and  idiosyncrasies, 
for  he  is  not  without  a  few  odd  traits  and  actions. 

Fontinalis — "  living  in  springs  " — is  without  doubt 
the  most  amply  descriptive,  specific  name  that  ichthy- 
ologists have  ever  bestowed  upon  a  fish,  for  take  a 
trout  from  its  native  and  highly  aerated  home  and  it 
will  die  if  placed  in  water  of  a  higher  temperature ; 
put  him  in  a  large  aquarium  tank  and  ice  it  as  you 
may,  and  his  life  is  only  a  question  of  a  few  months ; 
the  solstice  season  ends  it.  At  the  New  York  Aqua- 
rium, where  every  appliance  for  the  preservation  of  fish- 
life  is  at  hand  and  intelligently  used,  the  brook  trout 
can  seldom  be  kept  from  season  to  season. 
52 


THE     HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

Living  thus  in  pure  waters,  the  habits  of  the  trout 
naturally  partake  of  the  character  of  its  environment, 
if  we  except  the  fact  that  he  seems  to  be  somewhat 
of  a  gormand.  We  have  frequently  taken  them  on 
the  fly  when  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  half-swal- 
lowed minnow  was  sticking  from  their  mouths,  which 
would  seem  to  indicate  a  tremendous  gorging  habit ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  even  this  trait  would  seem  to 
show  their  eagerness  of  pursuit  for  the  most  delicate 
entree  of  their  water  memi^  the  insects  of  the  pools, 
hence  all  anglers  with  whom  to  decry  their  brook 
beauty  is  to  blaspheme  nature,  would  be  disposed  to 
call  him  a  gourmet  rather  than  a  glutton. 

But  be  this  as  it  may,  when  a  brook  trout  is  hungry, 
he  is  very  much  like  all  other  creatures  of  the  earth, 
air,  and  water,  including  the  human  family — he  will 
eat  what  he  can  get,  his  own  spawn-child,  minnows  of 
all  kinds,  earthworms  and  grubs,  crawfish  and  dobsons, 
all  living  things  of  the  water-bottoms,  and  insects  of 
the  air  that  fall  upon  the  surface  of  the  pool.  But  he 
is,  without  doubt,  one  of  the  most  energetic  and  per- 
sistent foragers  for  food  that  our  waters  contain.  We 
find  him  dashing  over  and  through  the  shallows  in 
chase  of  frightened  minnows ;  breasting  the  wild 
waters  of  the  rapids  while  awaiting  the  drifting  bug 
or  other  surface-washed  food,  and  then  again  we  find 
him  leaping  for  hours  into  the  air,  particularly  in  the 
gloaming,  for  the  midges,  the  no-see-ums,  or  the  mos- 
quito fry,   born  and  fledged  by  the  rays  of  a  single 

53 


ROOK     TROUT 


day's  summer  sun.  He  has  been  charged  with  nasti- 
ness  of  appetite  because  small  snakes  are  eaten  by 
him.  Why  not  eat  them  V  The  Chinaman  loves  his 
puppy  pottage,  the  Mexican  Indian  his  grasshopper 
pudding,  and  the  Southern  negro  his  carrion  buzzard 
stew.  The  trout  will  not  eat  carrion  food  of  any  de- 
scription, yet  the  French  Creole  of  Louisiana  is  said 
to  hang  his  wild  duck  outside  the  kitchen  walls  un- 
til the  atmosphere  is  soaked  with  the  fowl's  decaying 
odors,  before  he  cooks  and  eats  it.  Again,  I  very 
much  doubt  if  a  trout  could  be  tempted  to  nibble  at 
a  thread  of  boiled  sauer-kraut  or  even  a  crumb  of  a 
Welsh-rarebit,  at  Limburger  cheese  or  a  Spanish  olla- 
podrida.  Delicacy  of  taste  and  appetite,  per  se,  are 
seldom,  if  ever,  correlative,  but  both  are  strongly,  and 
often  strangely,  individualized  in  all  creatures  of  this 
world's  habitat. 

The  habits  of  the  trout  being  born  of  the  springs, 
with  an  environment,  the  beauty  and  almost  kaleido- 
scopic condition  of  which,  changing  with  every  glint  of 
a  sunbeam  through  the  foliage,  are,  as  has  been  noted, 
in  touch  and  quality  with  its  habitat.  He  seeks  the 
purest  portions  of  the  home  stream,  loving  the  white- 
capped  aeration  of  the  strong  currents,  and  the  mouths 
of  the  little  rill-like  tributaries  which  not  only  bring 
down  food  for  his  well-developed  appetite,  but  a  fresh 
supply  of  oxygen  for  his  arterial  system.  When- 
ever he  is  found  in  a  pool  of  quiet  water,  a  long  stretch 
of  which  often  exists  in  large  trout-streams,  he  is  less 

54 


THE     HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

forceful  in  action,  lazily  and  leisurely  taking  the  sur- 
face lure,  and  robing  himself  with  a  more  subdued 
coloration,  which  latter,  however,  seems  to  illuminate 
the  vermilion  spots  on  its  body  and  deepen  the  glow 
of  the  blue  areola  around  each  dotlet  tinged  with  a 
scarlet  hue. 

Among  the  fly-fishermen  for  trout  we  often  hear 
these  characteristic  phrases :  "  He  is  a  slow  striker," 
or  "  a  quick  striker,"  and  these  qualities  when  applied 
to  the  methods  of  an  angler  seem  to  satisfy  his  brethren 
of  the  craft  as  to  the  reasons  for  success,  or  the  lack  of 
it,  in  the  rodster  under  discussion.  Experience  has 
shown,  however,  that  slow  or  quick  striking  on  the 
part  of  the  angler  has  much  less  to  do  with  success  in 
scoring  than  the  well-established  fact  that  trout  of  dif- 
ferent waters,  even  of  the  same  waters  where  the  phys- 
ical conditions  are  changing  with  nearly  every  rod  of 
its  downpour,  have  varied  ways  of  taking  a  fly  when  it 
is  deftly  thrown  to  them.  In  long,  quiet  pools  over- 
hung with  alder  growth  from  which  insects  are  falling 
constantly  the  trout  has  the  habit  of  coming  leisurely 
to  the  surface,  lazily  as  it  were,  taking  the  fly  in  its 
mouth  in  a  manner  indicating  a  duty  rather  than  a 
physical  necessity,  closing  its  jaws  slowly  upon  the 
feathers  and  then  quietly  turning  tail  and  returning  to 
its  lair  below.  Now,  such  fish  are  a  glory  to  the  "  slow 
striker  " ;  he  will  creel  every  one  of  them  that  rises  to 
his  flies.  But,  then  and  again,  taking  the  same  stream, 
just  above  this  quiet  pool,  where  a  strong  rapid  is  boil- 

55 


BROOK     TROUT 


ing  and  foaming  over  the  rocks  in  mid-stream,  and 
"  the  slow  striker  "  is  all  afield.  A  quick  eye  with  the 
nerves  all  aglow,  an  instantaneous  turn  of  the  wrist 
when  the  slightest  swirl  in  the  water  is  seen,  or  the 
faintest  pluck  at  the  feathers  is  felt,  are  the  only  assur- 
ances of  a  successful  outing. 

Much  discussion  arose,  some  years  ago,  as  to  the 
trout  flopping  its  tail  at  a  floating  bug,  in  its  efforts  to 
disable  or  drown  it  and  thus  render  its  prey  more  easy 
to  capture.  In  rapid  or  turbulent  waters  this  never 
occurs ;  in  a  large  quiet  one  it  has  been  my  good  fort- 
une to  witness  it  nearly  every  day  for  about  a  fort- 
night. This  delightful  experience  was  awarded  me  on 
the  Ontonagon  River,  some  fifteen  miles  from  Waters- 
meet,  Mich.  The  trout,  averaging  about  half  a  pound 
each,  lived  in  a  pool  with  but  little  current,  nearly 
300  feet  in  length  and  fifty  in  breadth,  the  banks  of 
which  were  densely  grown  with  large  alders,  the 
branches  overhanging  some  six  or  eight  feet  on  each 
side  of  the  pool.  The  trout  seemed  to  be  loitering 
expectant  under  the  shadows  of  the  alders  for  falling 
insects,  which  now  and  then  would  drop  into  the 
water.  There  was  no  rush,  no  flash  in  the  pool  of  a 
velvet-robed,  red-dotted  arrow,  but  a  sluggish  coming 
to  the  surface  of  a  sombre  fin  with  a  sort  of  aristocratic 
leisure,  self-satisfied  and  confident  of  success,  but  a 
seeming  indifference  as  to  the  result.  It  would  open 
its  relatively  ponderous  jaws,  gulp  down  the  insect,  and 
leisurely  turn  tail  for  the  bottom.  At  least  one  out  of 
56 


THE     HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

every  five  of  these  trout,  as  if  more  lazy  or  less  hungry 
than  its  congeners  of  the  pool,  would  rise  nearly  to  the 
surface  and  flop  its  tail  over  the  floating  bug,  seldom 
if  ever  missing  its  aim,  and  so  far  as  I  could  see,  the 
insect  being  under  water,  secured  its  prey  at  every 
sweep  of  the  caudal  fin.  I  noted  that  the  fish  with  this 
habit  were  always,  seemingly,  the  largest  trout  in  the 
swim,  hence  their  sluggish,  lazy  way  of  "taking  things 
as  they  come,"  even  food  or  anything  else  of  material 
value  in  the  economy  of  fish-life. 

Since  the  days  of  old  Juliana  Benners  of  i486,  who 
wrote  the  first  printed  book  on  fishing,  writers  on  an- 
gling have  described  the  trout  as  a  leaping  fish  when  on 
the  hook,  with  acrobatic  efforts  to  free  themselves  from 
it.  No  angling  outing  could  be  described  or  a  mono- 
graph written  on  this  fish  without  an  allusion  to  his 
rapid,  aerial,  and  ofttimes  successful  gyrations  to  escape. 
In  a  trout-angling  experience  of  about  half  a  century 
but  one  instance  of  a  trout,  when  hooked,  leaping  into 
the  air,  on  a  slack  line,  has  occurred  to  me.  True,  this 
fish,  when  tightly  held,  will  come  to  the  surface,  with 
its  head  and  part  of  its  body  out  of  the  water,  and 
sometimes  with  the  entire  body  at  length  on  the  sur- 
face as  it  fights  frantically  to  escape,  but  the  angler's 
rod  held  tightly  and  upward  causes  this ;  given  a  slack 
line  and  the  trout  will  surge  deep.  On  the  one  occa- 
sion when  the  exception  above  noted  occurred,  the 
trout  was  struck  in  the  middle  of  a  small  pool,  and  a 
bowlder  protruded  its  head  from  the  surface  on  the  left 
57 


BROOK     T  R  O  U  T 

side  about  six  inches  with  a  breadth  of  two  feet. 
Holding  tightly,  the  fish  surged  deep  to  the  left,  and 
when  within  a  foot  of  the  rock,  and  unable  to  go 
around  its  lower  side  because  of  the  strain  of  the  line, 
and  tearing  still  more  its  human  enemy  in  front,  the 
fish  suddenly  leaped  into  the  air  on  a  slack  line,  and 
over  the  top  of  the  bowlder,  but  this  unusual  strategic 
action  did  not  save  him ;  in  a  few  moments  he  was  in 
my  creel. 

The  size  of  a  trout  at  its  different  stages  of  growth 
depends  upon  the  area  of  the  water  in  which  it  lives, 
the  food  therein,  and  vigor  and  health  of  the  individual, 
hence  this  fish  and  all  other  species  show  characteristic 
and  personal  physical  traits :  some  are  large  and  vigor- 
ous for  their  age ;  others  are  stunted  and  feeble,  in  fact, 
the  natural  law  of  the  "•  survival  of  the  fittest "  is  su- 
preme among  the  fauna  of  the  world,  whether  of  the 
air,  the  water,  or  the  land,  extending,  as  all  know,  to 
the  genus  homo.  Hence  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to 
decide  upon  the  age  of  a  trout  from  its  size,  weight, 
coloration,  or  specific  fotm,  but,  as  a  rule,  the  average 
growth  of  a  trout  is  about  one  ounce  for  the  first  year, 
eight  to  ten  ounces  in  two  years,  and  one  pound  in 
three  years.  These  sizes  are  naturally  and  relatively 
increased  where  their  habitat  is  fully  supplied  with 
food  and  where  the  water  is  of  higher  temperature  than 
in  the  pure  spring  streams.  For  instance,  the  trout  of 
the  Range  ley  Lakes  in  Maine  grow  to  the  weight  of 
ten  pounds  or  more;  they  are  pure  Salvel/ni/s  fojitmalis. 


;'.::!'«»' 


^fcl  tiVU'  )/ifl   /l^^if '^'   /'iJ 


^ 


^.\^^X,J 


.  ^i.  ^    <l^'  '.'.Mil 


I       .;! 


'I' 


Q3 


THE     HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

a  classification  which  some  anglers  have  been  disposed 
to  doubt.  These  trout  have  become  acclimated  in  the 
Rangeleys,  and,  doubtless,  their  scions  from  generation 
to  generation  and  tor  thousands  of  years  have  trans- 
mitted to  those  of  the  present  day  the  constitutional 
aptitude  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  higher  temperature 
of  these  lakes,  where  food  is  plenty  and  constant  for- 
aging for  it  not  imperative,  as  it  is  in  smaller  mountain- 
streams  and  other  waters. 

On  the  approach  of  the  spawning  season,  which 
usually  occurs  in  September,  October,  and  November, 
but  is  dependent  upon  the  latitude  and  temperature  of 
the  stream  or  pond,  the  trout  makes  its  way  upward 
nearly  to  the  sources  of  the  clear,  cold  spring  water 
brooks,  giving  preference  to  those  that  flow  rapidly 
over  gravelly  bottoms.  Here  it  selects  a  spot  near  the 
bank  and  the  female  flops  with  the  tail  the  sand  from 
her  nest  and  uses  her  nose  to  push  the  gravel  aside, 
thus  forming  a  slightly  concave  hollow,  in  which  she 
deposits  her  eggs,  and  the  male  emits  the  milt  upon 
them  almost  at  the  same  time.  The  parent  trouts 
leave  their  nests  immediately  after  the  act  of  spawning 
is  completed,  giving  no  parental  care  to  either  the  ova 
or  their  young,  a  trait  so  beautifully  exhibited  by  the 
black-bass,  the  sunfish,  and  the  lowly  "catty."  In 
about  an  average  of  eighty  days,  qualified  by  the  tem- 
perature of  the  water — 125  days  in  that  of  37°  F.,  and 
fifty  days  in  50°  F. — the  young  are  hatched  and  the  fry 
thenceforth  take  care  of  themselves  as  best  they  may, 

5Q 


BROOK     TROUT 

the  food-bag,  or  more  properly  the  umbilical  sac, 
which  is  attached  to  their  bellies,  sustaining  lite  tor 
thirty  to  forty  days.  It  is  estimated  that  not  more  than 
five  per  cent,  of  the  young  trout  hatched  in  native 
waters  escape  from  their  enemies  and  attain  maturity ; 
by  fish-culture  methods,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for 
the  perpetuation  of  the  trout,  a  percentage  of  eighty  to 
ninety  per  cent,  is  ordinarily  reached. 

In  studying  the  trout  physiologically,  we  find  that  its 
senses  are  not  more  acutely  developed  than  those  of  the 
other  so-called  game  fishes,  in  tact,  not  as  much  so  as 
those  of  the  small-mouthed  black-bass,  a  fish  as  quickly 
alarmed  or  as  "  skittish  "  as  the  trout,  but  with  more 
varied  and  intelligent  resources  for  escape  from  the 
hook.  There  is  no  question,  however,  as  to  the  high 
development  of  the  senses  of  sight,  taste,  and  hearing  in 
the  trout.  He  is  always  on  the  alert  for  food  or  ene- 
mies, with  his  head  up-stream,  poising  in  silence  and 
beauty  of  form,  and,  at  times,  as  motionless,  seemingly 
ossified,  as  a  brook-pickerel,  which  of  all  fishes  is  the 
most  statuesque  in  repose,  and  one  of  the  swiftest  in 
action.  Every  angler  is  aware  of  the  danger  of  having 
the  shadow  of  his  body,  his  uplifted  rod,  or  that  of  his 
line  thrown  across  a  quiet  pool ;  instant  alarm  and 
speeding  to  his  home  lair,  like  a  thread  of  fire,  is  the 
result.  We  have  seen  a  trout  shy  and  dart  downward 
at  the  shadow  of  a  butterfly  fluttering  over  the  water, 
and  a  low-skimming  swallow  will  send  this  brook 
beauty  of  ours  frantically  up  and  down,  or  crosswise 


THE     HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

the  pool.  No  Other  fish,  to  my  knowledge,  is  so  af- 
fected by  shadows  on  the  water. 

The  sense  of  taste  in  the  trout  is  more  fully  attuned 
to  nicety  than  that  possessed  by  many  other  fishes.  If 
the  lure  used  to  entice  him  be  dead,  it  must  be  fresh 
and  sweet ;  he  touches  nothing  that  is  not  pure  and 
clean.  If  the  artificial  fly  is  thrown  to  him  in  swift 
waters,  he  quickly  recognizes  the  gritty  impact  of  the 
steel  and  spits  it  out  at  once,  hence  the  value  of 
"  quick  striking  "  in  rapid  streams. 

The  sense  of  hearing  in  all  species  of  fish  is  a  matter 
of  concussion  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  Sit  motion- 
less in  a  boat,  and  you  may  sing  "  I  Won't  Go  Home 
'Till  Morning,"  or  any  other  gala  song,  to  the  extreme 
high  limit  of  your  voices,  and  the  trout  or  any  other 
fish  will  remain  undisturbed,  but  scratch  your  toe 
upon  the  bottom  of  the  boat  and,  presto  I  the  pool  is  as 
dead  and  barren  as  a  burned  prairie.  Approach  a  pool 
from  over  the  bank  with  a  careless  tread,  and  when 
you  reach  it  the  trout  are  gone,  none  know  where. 
Crawl  to  the  pool  noiselessly  on  all-fours  and  you  will 
find  your  trout  reposing  without  fear  of  danger.  The 
avoidance  of  concussion  is  the  great  factor  on  a  trout 
pool  or  stream  in  getting  a  satisfactory  creel;  slide, 
rather  than  step,  in  wading  and  your  success  will  be 
greater. 

Trout  feed  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night,  yet 
it  would  seem  that  in  many  waters  their  hunger  ap- 
proaches a  maximum  as  the  dusk  of  the  day  gathers 

6i 


ROOK     TROUT 


on  the  stream,  or  it  may  be,  and  doubtless  is,  that  as 
the  shadows  fall  their  sense  of  security  increases.  It  is 
at  this  hour  that  insect  life  is  most  abundant,  partic- 
ularly the  moths  and  mosquitoes,  and  trout  will  often 
be  found  jumping  for  the  latter  and  puzzling  the  an- 
gler, who  is  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  feeding  fish 
ignoring  his  feathers.  This  is  easily  explained.  The 
trout  are  busy  feeding  on  tiny  "skeets,"  and  nothing 
but  a  gray-midge  fly  tied  on  No.  18  or  20  hooks  will 
lure  them.  We  have  taken  trout  with  such  flies  up 
to  midnight  on  both  dark  and  moonlight  nights. 

The  accepted  rule  that  a  white  miller  or  other  very 
light-colored  flies  are  the  only  ones  that  will  attract  a 
trout  as  the  night  falls  is  subject  to  modification,  for 
this  fish  is  excessively  fond  of  crickets  and  grasshop- 
pers and  lie,  perdue,  at  night  along  the  banks  of  the 
stream,  where  bushes  grow  thickly  close  to  the  water, 
to  feed  upon  these  creatures.  Hence  when  fishing  in 
the  evening  it  would  be  well  for  the  rodster  to  vary 
the  dressing  of  his  flies  to  that  of  the  black  hackle  or 
dark  Alexandria.  We  have  taken  trout  of  large  sizes 
and  in  quantities  at  the  foot  of  a  dam  where  the  water 
was  falling  and  churning  into  foam  by  casting  a  black 
fly  upon  the  white  area. 

All  of  us  have  seen  trout,  particularly  as  the  dusk 
grows,  leaping  into  the  air  and  apparently  frolicking, 
for  no  lure  will  entice  them.  Doubtless,  this  fish,  as 
black-bass  and  sometimes  yellow-perch  certainly  do, 
indulge  in  such  antics  from  causes  unknown  to  us. 
62 


THE     HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

Perhaps  it  is  from  hygienic  reasons,  or  it  may  be  that 
our  brook  beauty  enjoys  a  romp  nov/  and  then  just  for 
the  "  fun  of  the  thing."  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  how- 
ever, when  these  fish  are  rollicking,  as  it  were,  they 
will  be  found  feeding  on  minute  winged  insects  that 
are  floating  in  the  air  from  two  to  six  inches  above  the 
surface  of  the  pool,  as  the  newly  born  mosquito  is  apt 
to  do,  or  fontinalis  may  be  pleasing  his  palate  by  a 
feast  on  the  no-see-ums,  which  the  angler  can  feel  to 
his  discomfort  but  cannot  see. 

At  night  we  have  seldom  found  trout  feeding  in  the 
rapids ;  in  the  daytime  they  will  be  frequently  found 
there,  even  when  the  water  is  shallow  and  the  sun's 
rays  are  reflected  from  every  pebble  on  the  bottom  of 
the  stream.  This  practice  of  feeding  in  rapid  water 
is  exceptional  among  the  so-called  game  fishes  of  our 
inland  streams.  The  black-bass  lies  occasionally  in 
the  eddies  at  the  side  of  rapids,  but  seldom,  if  ever, 
ventures  into  the  current  except,  perhaps,  for  a  dash  at 
a  victim,  and  then  a  quick  return  to  the  relatively  quiet 
eddy.  The  perches  and  the  sunfishes,  which  include 
all  species  of  fresh-water  basses,  are  never  found  in 
rapids,  and  the  modest  chub,  ubiquitous  as  he  is,  only 
seeks  strong  waters  to  escape  the  ravenous  jaws  of  the 
black-bass,  impelled  to  do  so  by  his  reasoning  instinct 
that  the  black-bass  does  not  enter  such  waters  to  feed. 
So  we  must  assign  to  the  trout  the  quality  of  muscular 
activity  and  vigor  of  search  for  food  in  turbulent  wa- 
ters beyond  that  possessed    by  any  other  fresh-water 

^3 


BROOK     TROUT 

fish.  The  wannanish,  or  ouananiche,  of  the  Grande 
Dcscharge  of  Lake  St.  John,  Quebec,  a  kindred  con- 
gener of  the  trout,  is  the  most  striking  example  of  this 
quality.  In  this  tempestuous  water  large  rocks  lie 
hither  and  yon  and  close  together  and  the  boiling  cur- 
rent dashes  in  volume  and  foam  through  and  over 
them  at  times  at  least  fifty  feet  at  race-horse  speed. 
In  such  a  habitat  the  wannanish  is  at  home,  and  in 
keeping  with  the  character  of  it  shows  game  quali- 
ties beyond  those  of  any  other  member  of  the  salmon 
family. 

The  environment  of  a  mountain  trout-stream  is  ele- 
vating to  the  nature  and  mood  of  anyone  who  reposes 
on  the  banks  of  the  brook  or  wanders  along  its  shores, 
yet  we  have  been  told  that  fishing  is  a  lazy  man's 
idling,  and  the  saying  has  become  somewhat  of  an 
axiom  with  those  who  do  not  angle  or  value  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  natural  history  of  the  water  fauna  of  the 
country.  Fascinating  as  this  study  is,  as  it  is  taught 
in  books,  it  becomes  doubly  so  when  associated  with 
an  angler's  life  on  the  stream,  where  the  phases  of  ani- 
mated nature  are  ceaselessly  changing  and  with  every 
change  unfolding  a  new  delight.  It  is  not  an  idle  hour 
to  study  the  self-containment  and  posing  of  a  patri- 
archal trout,  in  his  knot-rooted  home-pool,  or  the  wild 
enjoyment  of  the  giddy  troutlets,  just  out  of  school,  as 
it  were,  who  seem  to  be  playing  a  game  of  shuttles 
with  their  tails  as  battle-doors  among  the  fluttering  and 
falling  insects  of  the  stream ;  to  watch  the  frightened 
64 


THE      HABITS     OF     THE     TROUT 

minnows  on  the  shallows,  the  poise  of  expectant  and 
hungry  yearlings,  or  the  busy  spawners  on  the  gravel- 
beds  ;  to  be  charmed  by  the  kaleidoscopic  color  flashes 
as  the  sun  rays  or  shadows  fall  and  shift  upon  and  over 
the  rifts  and  pools ;  to  note  the  sedate  and  overhanging 
alders,  under  which  the  lazy  veterans  of  the  reaches 
listlessly  rise  to  the  dropping  bugs ;  to  repose  in  a 
moss-bedded  nook  of  verdure  and  watch  the  curling 
lips  of  tiny  eddies,  or  the  wild  rush  of  mountain- 
waters;  to  enjoy  the  placidity  of  hill-environed  lakes 
or  to  hear  the  innumerable  and  mysterious  utterances 
from  out  of  the  hollows,  from  the  hill-sides,  and  from 
the  hurling  waters  and  the  depths  of  the  forest. 


65 


THE   OLD   ADIRONDACKS. 


THE   OLD  ADIRONDACKS. 


LAST  summer  the  New  York  l^ijnes  published 
an  article  deprecating  the  "ruinous  public- 
ity" given  by  Rev.  W.  H.  H.  Murray  to 
the  sporting  attractions  of  the  Adirondacks, 
and  lamenting  that  this  exceptional  region  should  have 
"  fallen  from  that  estate  of  fish  and  solitude  for  which 
it  was  originally  celebrated."  Railroads,  stages,  tele- 
graphs and  hotels,  it  says,  "have  followed  in  the  train 
of  the  throng  who  rushed  for  the  wilderness.  The 
desert  has  blossomed  with  parasols,  and  the  waste 
places  are  filled  with  picnic-parties,  revelling  in  lemon- 
ade and  sardines.  The  piano  has  banished  the  deer 
from  the  entire  region,  and  seldom  is  any  one  of  the 
countless  multitude  of  sportsmen  fortunate  enough  to 
meet  with  even  the  track  of  a  deer."  The  writer  re- 
joices, and  with  reason,  that  Canadian  forests  are  yet 
undesecrated,  and  are  likely  to  remain  so,  "  unless  some 

6q 


BROOK     TROUT 

malevolent  person  writes  a  book  upon  the  subject,  giv- 
ing to  the  indiscriminate  public  the  secrets  that  should 
be  reserved  tor  the  true  sportsman  and  the  reverent 
lover  of  nature." 

It  is  not  without  a  careful  consideration  of  the  ques- 
tion in  all  its  aspects  that  I  have  ventured  to  publish 
my  Reference  Books.  Jealous  as  I  am,  in  common 
with  all  sportsmen,  of  sportsmen's  secrets,  and  re- 
strained withal  by  the  instincts  of  self-interest,  I  should 
hesitate  to  reveal  them,  were  it  not  that  concealment 
is  no  longer  a  virtue.  The  considerations  that  permit 
publicity  are  these : 

In  the  first  place,  the  several  great  railway  routes 
that  have  been  recently  completed  or  are  now  in  prog- 
ress— the  Intercolonial,  the  European,  and  North 
American,  and  the  various  Pacific  roads — are  opening 
up  to  tourists  and  sportsmen  regions  hitherto  inaccessi- 
ble. Civilization  and  its  concomitants  inevitably  fol- 
low in  their  train,  and  hidden  places  become  open  as 
the  day.  What  would  the  negative  force  of  silence 
avail  to  hinder  or  prevent*? 

There  is  not  much  danger  of  the  mosquito  swamps 
and  inaccessible  fastnesses  of  the  Adirondacks  being 
invaded  by  "  good  society."  The  crowd  comes  only 
where  the  way  is  made  easy,  and  because  it  is  easy.  It 
follows  the  natural  water-courses  and  avoids  the  tedious 
"carries."  It  halts  where  the  sporting-houses  invite, 
and  selects  those  which  provide  the  most  abundant 
creature  comforts. 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

Murray's  book  attracted  its  crowds,  not  because  a 
legion  of  uninitiated  sportsmen  and  ambitious  Amazons 
stood  waiting  tor  the  gates  of  some  new  paradise  to 
open,  but  because  it  presented  the  wilderness  in  new 
aspects  and  fascinating  colors.  It  showed  how  its 
charms  could  be  made  enjoyable  even  for  ladies.  It 
was  a  simple  narrative  of  personal  experience  and 
impressions,  written  con  a?nore^  with  a  vigor  and  fresh- 
ness that  touched  a  sympathetic  chord  in  the  hearts  of 
its  readers.  It  aroused  a  latent  impulse  and  provided 
a  new  sensation  for  those  who  had  become  surfeited  by 
the  weary  round  of  watering-place  festivities.  And  it 
has  accomplished  much  good  by  encouraging  a  taste 
for  field-sports  and  that  health-giving  exercise  which 
shall  restore  the  bloom  to  faded  cheeks  and  vigor  to 
attenuated  valetudinarians. 

What  though  the  door-posts  of  Adirondack  hostel- 
ries  be  pencilled  o'er  with  names  of  those  who  fain 
would  seek  renown  among  the  list  of  mighty  Nimrods ; 
what  though  the  wilderness  blooms  with  radiant  para- 
sols, and  pianos  thrum  throughout  the  realm;  there 
yet  is  ample  room  for  the  sportsman,  and  solitude  suf- 
ficient for  the  most  sentimental  lover  of  nature.  The 
very  contour  of  the  land  makes  roads  impracticable. 
It  is  everywhere  broken  up  into  mountain  ranges, 
groups,  and  isolated  peaks,  interspersed  with  innumer- 
able basins  and  water-courses,  nearly  all  connecting. 
These  are  the  heads  and  feeders  of  numerous  rivers 
that  flow  to  every  point  of  the  compass,  and  after 
71 


ROOK     TROUT 


tumbling  down  the  lofty  water-shed  in  a  series  of 
rapids,  tall  into  the  lakes  or  ocean.  These  are  the 
sources  of  the  Hudson,  the  Oswagatchie,  Black  River, 
Raquette,  Saint  Regis,  Ausable,  and  Saranac.  It  is  only 
where  a  valuable  iron  deposit  makes  it  pay  to  surmount 
the  natural  obstacles  that  some  solitary  tramway  pene- 
trates into  the  heart  of  the  mountains.  The  few  fertile 
districts  and  tillable  spots  are  likely  to  remain  unoccu- 
pied forever  for  lack  of  highways  to  a  market,  unless, 
perchance,  the  growth  of  succeeding  centuries  drives 
an  overflowing  population  to  the  very  crags  of  this 
American  Switzerland. 

It  has  been  proposed  to  make  a  national  park  of  this 
grand  domain,  and  dedicate  it  forever  to  sports  of  for- 
est, lake,  and  field.  Why  not  ?  Here  is  a  territory 
of  3,500,000  acres,  or  5,000  square  miles — larger  than 
the  State  of  Connecticut.  Let  the  disciples  of  the  rod 
and  gun  go  up  and  possess  the  land.  Let  the  girls 
romp.  Let  the  pianos  thrum.  Let  the  wild-wood  ring 
with  the  merry  laughter  of  healthy  women — real  flesh- 
and-blood  women  who  will  make  wives  too  good  for 
the  sour  ascetics  who  would  fain  frown  them  out. 
Precious  indeed  in  these  cloudy  times  of  irksome  servi- 
tude are  the  holiday  hours  we  snatch,  sparkling  with 
dew  and  sunshine,  from  the  beatitude  of  the  better 
day.  And  what  more  genial  warmth  can  the  sports- 
man find  than  the  female  welcome  that  greets  him 
from  the  long  piazza  when  he  returns  from  his  exile  in 
the  woods  I 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

The  borders  of  the  Adirondack  Wilderness  are  ac- 
cessible at  various  points  by  tolerable  roads  which 
branch  off  from  the  main  thoroughfares  of  travel.  Dr. 
Ely's  Map,  published  by  Colton,  172  William  Street, 
New  York,  gives  minutest  information  as  to  distances, 
interior  routes,  "  carries,"  hotel  and  stage  accommoda- 
tion, etc.,  and  no  tourist  should  be  without  one.  I 
have  found  it  remarkably  accurate  in  all  its  details, 
though  slight  corrections  are  sometimes  necessary. 
For  immediate  reference,  however,  the  subjoined  di- 
rections will  prove  useful  and  reliable  : 

From  the  southwest  the  approach  is  via  Boonville, 
on  the  Utica  &  Black  River  Railroad.  A  wagon-road 
(so-called)  leads  directly  to  the  Fulton  chain  of  lakes, 
in  the  very  heart  of  what  is  known  as  "  John  Brown's 
Tract "  ;  but  it  is  practicable  for  wheels  only  for  about 
fourteen  miles,  or  a  little  beyond  Moose  River.  Thence 
to  Arnold's  old  sporting-house,  eight  miles,  the  success 
of  the  journey  must  depend  upon  one's  ingenuity  in 
surmounting  obstacles.  The  difficulties  of  the  way 
are  graphically  portrayed  by  the  pen  and  pencil  of  T. 
B.  Thorpe,  in  the  nineteenth  volume  of  Harpefs  Maga- 
zine, though  the  road  has  been  considerably  improved 
since  the  article  was  published.  Some  few  bowlders 
have  sunk  into  the  mud,  and  trunks  of  trees  that  then 
crossed  the  road  have  rotted  away,  so  that  it  is  no 
longer  necessary  to  go  around  them.  Consequently 
the  distance  is  somewhat  shortened,  and  the  road  made 
more  level.  From  Arnold's  there  is  a  navigable  water- 
73 


BROOK     TROUT 


course  all  the  way  to  Raquette  Lake,  a  distance  of 
thirty  miles,  broken  by  three  portages  or  "carries," 
whose  aggregate  length  is  two  and  three-quarter  miles. 
Indeed  there  is  a  continuous  water-course  by  way  ot' 
Raquette  Lake,  as  will  presently  be  shown,  all  the  way 
to  the  northernmost  limit  of  the  Adirondack  region. 
This  "  John  Brown's  Tract "  is  about  twenty  miles 
square  and  contains  210,000  acres.  As  is  well  known, 
it  was  once  the  seat  of  very  considerable  iron-works 
which  afterward  failed  in  the  fulfilment  of  a  promise 
of  lucrative  profit,  and  were  abandoned.  Arnold's 
house  is  a  relic  of  those  ancient  improvements.  It  is 
one  of  the  finest  fishing  and  hunting  grounds  in  the 
whole  section,  though  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  sportsman 
must  turn  a  little  aside  from  the  main  thoroughfare  if 
he  would  find  reward  commensurate  with  his  endeav- 
ors. The  adjacent  country  is  hilly,  though  not  strictly 
mountainous;  but  there  is  an  isolated  peak  called 
"  Bald  Mountain,"  which  is  everywhere  the  most  promi- 
nent feature  of  the  landscape.  From  its  summit  there 
is  a  panorama  of  magnificent  extent.  Fourth  Lake 
with  its  green  islands  occupies  the  central  position, 
stretching  away  for  six  miles  through  an  unbroken  for- 
est whose  farthest  limit  is  a  blue  mountain-range  deli- 
cately limned  upon  the  horizon.  There  is  a  comfortable 
house  near  the  foot  of  the  mountain  where  parties 
proposing  to  ascend  can  find  an  abiding-place. 

From  the  west  there  are  entrances  to  the  Wilderness 
via    Lowville    and   Carthage,    stations   on   the  Black 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

River  Railroad,  by  tolerable  wagon-roads  which  con- 
verge at  Lake  Francis,  a  distance  of  eighteen  or  twenty 
miles ;  thence  by  road  and  stream  twenty-two  miles  to 
Beach's  Lake,  and  thence  nine  miles  to  Raquette  Lake. 
This  route  is  not  much  travelled,  and  the  sport  will  not 
pay  for  the  hardships  of  the  journey.  Boonville  is  the 
better  starting-point. 

From  Potsdam,  on  the  north,  there  is  a  very  good 
winter  road  all  the  way  to  "  Grave's  Lodge  "  on  Big 
Tupper  Lake,  whence  all  parts  of  the  Wilderness  are 
accessible  by  boat.  The  summer  route  is  from  Potsdam 
to  Colton,  ten  miles  by  stage;  thence  by  good  wagon- 
road  twelve  miles  to  McEwen's  on  the  Raquette 
River ;  thence  six  miles  to  Haw's,  with  a  very  short 
portage ;  thence  six  miles  and  a  half  by  road  to  the 
"  Moosehead  still  water " ;  and  thence  fifteen  miles 
by  water  to  the  foot  of  Raquette  Pond,  from  which 
there  is  water  communication  with  Big  Tupper  and  all 
other  points  north  and  south.  From  McEwen's  to 
Raquette  Pond  the  river  is  broken  by  a  succession  of 
rapids  and  falls,  around  which  boats  must  be  carried. 
Notwithstanding  the  frequency  of  the  portages,  and 
the  vexatious  changes  from  wagon  to  stream,  this  is  a 
favorite  route  for  sportsmen,  for  the  adjacent  country 
abounds  in  fish  and  game.  Visitors  to  this  section  do 
not,  however,  generally  go  through,  but  camp  at  eligible 
points,  or  put  up  at  Pelsue's,  Haw's,  Ferry's,  and  other 
houses  below  the  Piercefield  Falls.  On  the  other  hand, 
visitors  from  above  seldom  descend  as  far  as  Piercefield. 

75 


BROOK     TROUT 

Entering  from  the  north  at  Malone  on  the  Ogdens- 
burg  &  Northern  Railroad,  after  a  fortnight  spent  at 
Chazy  and  Chateaugay  Lakes,  the  route  is  by  the  east 
branch  of  Saint  Regis  River  to  Meacham  Pond,  famous 
for  its  trout  and  its  beautiful  beach,  and  thence  by 
stream  through  Osgood's  Pond,  with  a  half-mile  carry 
to  Paul  Smith's,  on  the  Lower  Saint  Regis  Lake,  the 
preferred  and  best-known  starting-point  for  the  interior 
Wilderness  for  all  visitors  from  the  East.  It  is  the 
easiest  and  shortest  route,  and  affords  fine  fishing  the 
whole  distance.  There  is  also  an  excellent  wagon- 
road  from  Malone  to  Martin's,  a  favorite  hotel  on  the 
Lower  Saranac — distance  fifty  miles. 

From  the  northeast  there  is  a  railroad  twenty  miles 
long  from  Plattsburg  to  Point  of  Rocks,  Ausable  Sta- 
tion, on  the  Ausable  River,  whence  lines  of  Concord 
stages  are  run  daily  over  excellent  roads  to  Paul 
Smith's  and  Martin's,  diverging  at  Bloomingdale,  the 
post-office  nearest  to  either  point.  The  distance  by 
stage  is  about  forty  miles.  The  same  stages  also  run 
from  Port  Kent,  on  Lake  Champlain,  through  Keese- 
ville  to  the  railroad  terminus  at  Point  of  Rocks,  a  trip 
of  thirteen  miles.  By  this  route  a  great  deal  is  saved 
in  distance ;  but  thirteen  miles  of  staging  are  added, 
and  nothing  is  gained  in  time,  as  the  stages  all  connect 
with  the  railroad  trains.  Whether  the  tourist  leaves 
the  steamer  at  Port  Kent  or  continues  to  Plattsburg, 
he  will  have  to  remain  at  a  hotel  over  night.  The 
Wetherill  House,  and  Fouquet's  Hotel,  at  Plattsburg, 
76 


Co 


-Ss 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

afford  the  traveller  every  luxury,  and  at  the  Ausable 
House,  Keeseville,  there  is  excellent  accommodation. 
Both  places  are  reached  by  steamer  from  Whitehall 
and  Burlington,  and  also  by  railroad  from  Montreal. 
Tourists  often  take  the  Keeseville  route  in  order  to 
visit  the  celebrated  chasm  of  the  Ausable  River,  a 
magnificent  mountain-gorge  of  most  romantic  effects 
and  picturesque  scenery.  There  is  also  a  route  to 
Saranac  Lake  from  this  point,  which  passes  through 
Wilmington  Notch  and  skirts  the  base  of  "  White- 
face  Mountain,"  and  thence  continues  on  through  North 
Elba,  where  may  be  seen  the  tomb  of  John  Brown,  of 
Harper's  Ferry  renown.  There  is  a  road  to  the  top  of 
"  Whiteface,"  whence  can  be  had  an  illimitable  view 
of  the  Wilderness.  This  route  altogether  affords  the 
most  remarkable  and  varied  scenery  to  be  found  in 
the  Adirondacks ;  and  a  visit  will  well  repay  those 
lovers  of  nature  who  have  never  yet  "  wet  a  line  "  or 
"  drawn  a  bead  on  a  deer." 

By  the  other  route  there  is  a  romantic  bit  of  scenery 
at  the  Franklin  Falls  of  the  Saranac;  but  its  natural 
charms  are  disfigured  by  one  of  those  utilitarian  im- 
provements, a  saw-mill.  Here  is  the  "  half-way  house," 
where  passengers  for  Smith's  and  Martin's  dine.  Two 
seasons  ago,  while  indulging  in  a  post-prandial  cigar,  I 
took  the  trouble  to  count  the  names  on  the  little  hotel 
register,  and  found  that  they  numbered  1,500!  and 
the  season  was  only  half  over.  These,  however,  in- 
cluded those  going  out  as  well  as  those  going  in. 
77 


BROOK     TROUT 

(When  a  man  is  headed  for  the  Wilderness,  he  is  said 
to  be  "going  in.") 

There  are  two  other  routes  from  the  east,  namely, 
from  Westport,  and  from  Crown  Point,  on  Lake 
Champlain.  Both  of  these  take  the  visitor  into  the 
heart  of  the  mountains,  the  birth-place  of  winds  and 
the  nursery  of  snow-fed  sources.  Here  old  ^  Boreas 
Mountain  "  dwells ;  here  is  Boreas  Lake,  the  fountain- 
head  of  Boreas  River.  Here  also  are  Lakes  Sanford, 
Henderson,  and  Delia,  which  are  often  resorted  to  by 
pertinacious  sportsmen ;  but  as  these  are  most  accessi- 
ble from  the  south  by  the  old  Fort  Edward  stage-route, 
or  the  Adirondack  Railroad,  which  is  now  extended  to 
North  Creek  Station,  sixty  miles  from  Saratoga,  the 
above-named  routes  are  seldom  used. 

The  Fort  Edward  road  leaves  the  Saratoga  & 
Whitehall  Railway  at  the  station  of  that  name,  and  ex- 
tends to  Long  Lake,  a  distance  of  seventy-five  miles, 
touching  Lake  George  at  Caldwell,  Schroon  Lake  at 
Potterville,  and  passing  within  easy  access  of  Lakes 
Delia,  Sanford,  Henderson,  Harris,  and  Catlin. 

From  the  south  access  is  had  to  Round  Lake  and 
Lakes  Pleasant  and  Piseco — the  well-stocked  waters  of 
the  famed  "  Piseco  Club " — by  a  good  wagon-road 
which  leaves  Little  Falls  or  Herkimer  on  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad,  The  distance  from  Herkimer 
to  the  head  of  Piseco  Lake  is  fifty-two  miles. 

The  foregoing  make  up  a  list  complete  ot  all  the 
highways  into  the  Adirondack  Wilderness,  with  two 

78 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

exceptions.  One  is  a  road  to  "Joe's  Lake"  in  the 
lower  part  of  Herkimer  County,  which  leaves  the  town 
of  Prospect,  on  the  Black  River  Railroad;  and  the 
other  a  boat-route  from  Clarksboro,  on  the  Grasse 
River,  to  Massawepie  Pond  at  its  head.  Clarksboro  is 
an  iron  region  at  the  terminus  of  a  branch  of  the 
Watertown  &  Potsdam  Railroad.  Massawepie  Pond 
is  within  striking  distance  of  the  Raquette  River,  near 
Piercefield  Falls,  and  is  visited  by  old  hunters  who 
mean  business,  and  are  not  afraid  to  camp  out  or  follow 
a  blind  trail  through  the  woods.  There  are  plenty  of 
deer  and  trout  there  for  those  who  will  hunt  them  in 
their  season.  Massawepie  is  accessible  also  by  the  old 
Potsdam  wagon-road  to  Tupper's  Lake. 

The  "circumbendibus"  route  generally  taken  by 
ladies  and  gentlemen  who  purpose  "  doing  "  the  Adiron- 
dacks  thoroughly,  is  from  the  foot  of  the  Upper  Sar- 
anac  Lake,  three  miles  over  the  "  Sweeny  carry "  to 
the  Raquette  River ;  thence  through  Big  Tupper  Lake 
and  stream,  v/a  Round  Pond,  to  Little  Tupper  Lake; 
thence  through  a  series  of  little  ponds  and  connecting 
streams,  with  one  three-mile  carry,  to  Forked  Lake ; 
thence  carry  a  mile  and  a  half  to  Raquette  Lake,  the 
southernmost  point  of  the  tour.  From  Raquette  Lake 
into  Long  Lake,  with  three  short  "carries,"  thence 
through  Raquette  River,  Stony  Creek,  and  Stony 
Creek  Pond,  with  a  mile  "  carry,"  back  to  Upper  Sar- 
anac  Lake.  From  thence  visitors  for  Martin's  Ferry 
carry  over  at  Bartlett's  through  Round  Lake  to  the 

79 


ROOK     TROUT 


Lower  Saranac;  for  Paul  Smith's,  they  continue 
through  the  Upper  Saranac  to  Big  Clear  Pond,  with  a 
forty-rod  "carry";  thence  carry  a  mile  and  a  half  to 
the  Upper  Saint  Regis  Lake,  and  thence  through  Spit- 
fire Pond  to  head-quarters  on  the  Lower  Saint  Regis. 

There  are  several  routes  that  diverge  from  the  main 
route  at  various  points,  those  most  in  favor  being  from 
Raquette  Lake  fourteen  miles  to  Blue  Mountain  Lake, 
the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  Adirondack  waters ;  from 
Big  Tupper  Lake,  with  a  three-mile-carry  from  Grave's 
Lodge,  to  Horseshoe  Pond,  Hitchins'  Pond,  and  a 
labyrinth  of  lakes  and  ponds  of  greater  or  less  extent ; 
and  from  the  Upper  Saranac  through  Fish  River  to 
Big  Square  Pond ;  thence,  with  a  half-mile  carry, 
through  a  series  of  small  lakes  to  Big  and  Little  Wolf 
Ponds,  Raquette  Pond,  and  Big  Tupper;  and  thence 
return  by  Raquette  River  to  Upper  Saranac.  The  two 
last-named  regions  are  equal  for  game  and  fish  to  any 
in  the  country,  and  the  Hitchins'  Pond  district  is  per- 
haps the  best. 

Boats  from  Paul  Smith's  can  traverse  160  miles  of 
lake  and  stream. 

Paul  Smith's  has  been  very  appropriately  styled  the 
"  St.  James  of  the  Wilderness."  It  has  all  the  "  modern 
improvements  "  except  gas.  A  telegraph-wire  connects 
it  with  the  outer  world.  It  has  commodious  lodgings 
for  nearly  100  guests,  and  in  the  height  of  the  season 
will  accommodate  many  more  than  it  will  hold.  Sofas 
and  tables  are  occupied,  tents  are  pitched  upon  the 
80 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

lawn  in  front,  and  blankets  are  spread  on  the  floor  of 
the  immense  guide-house,  itself  capable  of  lodging 
some  sixty  or  more  guides.  And  each  guide  has  his 
boat.  Beautiful  crafts  they  are,  weighing  from  sixty 
to  eighty  pounds,  and  drawing  but  three  inches  of 
water.  Most  of  them  carry  two  persons,  some  of  them 
three.  A  guide  will  sling  one  of  them  upon  his  back 
and  carry  it  mile  after  mile  as  easily  as  a  tortoise  car- 
ries his  shell.  When  the  carries  are  long,  wagons  and 
sleds  are  in  readiness  to  haul  them  from  landing  to 
landing;  but  few  are  the  guides  that  will  refuse  to 
back  them  over  for  the  price  of  the  carriage. 

Great  is  the  stir  at  these  caravansaries  on  the  long 
summer  evenings — ribbons  fluttering  on  the  piazzas ; 
silks  rustling  in  dress  promenade;  ladies  in  short 
mountain-suits,  fresh  from  an  afternoon  picnic ;  embryo 
sportsmen  in  velveteen  and  corduroys  of  approved 
cut,  descanting  learnedly  of  backwoods  experience ; 
excursion  -  parties  returning,  laden  with  trophies  of 
trout  and  pond-lilies;  stages  arriving  top-heavy  with 
trunks,  rifle-cases,  and  hampers ;  guides  intermingling, 
proffering  services,  or  arranging  trips  for  the  morrow; 
pistols  shooting  at  random ;  dogs  on  the  qui  vive  ;  in- 
valids, bundled  in  blankets,  propped  up  in  chairs;  old 
gents  distracted,  vainly  perusing  their  papers;  fond 
lovers  strolling;  dowagers  scheming;  mosquitoes  de- 
vouring; the  supper-bell  ringing,  and  general  commo- 
tion confusing  mine  host.  Anon  some  millionnaire 
Nimrod  or  piscator  of  marked  renown  drags  in  from  a 


BROOK     TROUT 


weary  day  with  a  basket  of  unusual  weight,  or  per- 
chance a  fawn  cut  down  before  its  time.  Fulsome  are 
the  congratulations  given,  manifold  the  acknowledg- 
ments of  his  prowess.  He  receives  honors  with  that 
becoming  dignity  which  reticence  impresses,  and  mag- 
nificently tips  a  $20  note  to  his  trusty  guide.  The 
crowd  look  on  in  admiration,  and  vow  to  emulate  the 
hero.  After  supper  there  is  a  generous  flow  of  cham- 
pagne to  a  selected  few  upon  the  western  piazza,  and 
the  exploits  of  the  day  are  recounted  and  compared. 
The  parlors  grow  noisy  with  music  and  dancing; 
silence  and  smoke  prevail  in  the  card-room.  This  is 
the  daily  evening  routine. 

At  early  dawn  of  morning  camping  parties  are  astir. 
With  much  careful  stowage  and  trimming  of  ship,  the 
impedimenta  of  the  voyage  are  placed  in  the  boats. 
Tents,  blankets,  cooking-utensils,  provision-hampers, 
rods,  guns,  demijohns,  satchels,  and  overcoats  are  piled 
up  amidships.  A  backboard  is  nicely  adjusted  in  the 
stern  for  the  tourist,  who  takes  his  seat  and  hoists  his 
umbrella.  The  guide  deftly  ships  his  oars,  cuts  a 
fresh  piece  of  tobacco,  and  awaits  orders  to  start. 
Singly,  and  by  twos  or  threes,  the  boats  get  away ; 
cambric  adieus  are  waved  by  the  few  receding  friends 
on  shore,  and  the  household  of  St.  James  is  left  to  fin- 
ish its  slumbers  till  summoned  to  breakfast  at  eight 
o'clock.  Delicious  and  vivifying  is  the  pure  morning 
air,  grateful  as  a  mother's  lullaby  the  long  sweep  of 
the  oars,  enchanting  the  shifting  scenery  and  ever- 
82 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

changing  outline  of  shore.  In  a  dreamland  of  listless 
and  "  sweet  do-nothing  "  the  hours  lapse  away.  Cigar 
after  cigar  melts  into  smoke.  Lunch  is  leisurely  eaten 
meanwhile.  Through  the  outlet  of  one  lake  into  the 
next,  winding  through  many  a  tortuous  stream,  glid- 
ing past  many  an  islet,  with  one  boat  ahead  and  an- 
other astern,  and  the  mechanical  oars  dripping  dia- 
monds of  spray  that  flash  in  the  sun — what  can  be 
more  deliciously  pleasant — what  freedom  from  anxiety 
and  business  cares  so  complete  I 

"  Halloo,  guide,  what's  that '?  Struck  something  ? 
Good  gracious,  you  ain't  going  to  stop  here  in  this 
sedge-grass !  Why,  the  pesky  mosquitoes  are  thicker 
than  lightning.  Whew  !  I  can't  stand  this  !  They'll 
eat  us  alive." 

"  Got  to  carry  over  here,  mister.  It's  only  a  mile 
and  a  half" 

A  mile  and  a  half  to  tramp  through  woods,  mud, 
and  mosquitoes. 

Ah !  the  lake  once  more  I  This  is  bliss  I  What  a 
relief  to  get  on  the  water  again,  and  away  from  the 
mosquitoes  I  How  clear  it  is  I  What  beautiful 
shores !  Anon  into  the  noble  Raquette,  with  trees 
overarching,  current  sluggishly  flowing,  still  waters 
running  deep.  Just  here  the  current  is  swifter.  Toss 
your  fly  in,  where  it  breaks  over  that  rock.  A  trout ! 
Play  him  well — a  large  fellow,  tool  Well  landed — 
no  time  to  stop  long — we'll  pick  them  out  as  we  pro- 
ceed. The  trout  always  lie  among  the  rocks,  in  the 
83 


BROOK     TROUT 


quick  water,  at  this  season.  A  fortnight  later  they  will 
be  at  the  mouth  of  the  cold  brooks  that  flow  into  the 
main  stream.  Look  !  boats  coming  up — So-and-so's 
party — been  camping  down  at  Long  Lake.  What 
luck  ?  Report  us,  please.  Ah  I  whose  house  is  that  ? 
Stetson's.  We'll  stop  when  we  return.  The  Saranac 
at  last  I  What  a  magnificent  sheet  of  water  I  What 
beautiful  islands  !  See  those  tents  !  Why,  I  can  count 
a  dozen  along  the  shore.  I  had  no  idea  so  many  were 
camping  out.  Bartlett's,  at  last  I  We  tarry  here  to- 
night. What  a  place  for  trout  I  Two  years  ago,  just 
in  there,  above  the  dam,  where  you  see  that  rock  in 
midstream,  I  hooked  a  lake  trout  on  the  tail-fly  of  an 
extraordinary  long  cast ;  they  say  a  lake  trout  won't 
rise  to  a  fly.  He  did,  though,  and  took  it  handsomely. 
I  never  had  better  sport  in  my  life.  He  amused  me 
for  half  an  hour,  and  when  I  had  him  landed,  he 
weighed  four  pounds  and  a  half  I  was  proud  to  kill 
that  fish  on  my  eight-ounce  bamboo. 

Pleasant  is  the  voyage  around  the  route.  Each 
day's  experience  differs  from  the  last.  New  scenery 
constantly  opens  to  view.  Friendly  parties  and  fa- 
miliar faces  are  constantly  met.  And  one  need  not 
camp  out  at  all  if  indisposed.  The  guide  will  arrange 
to  stop  at  a  hotel  each  night.  And  what  rousing  fun 
there  is  in  these  wayside  hostelries  when  parties  meet  I 
What  blazing  fires,  what  steaming  venison,  what  pun- 
gent odor  of  fried  pork  and  bacon,  what  friendly  aroma 
of  hot  coffee  ! 

84 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

Here  I  would  fain  indulge  my  wayward  pen, 
and  in  fancy  go  over  the  ground  once  more.  Per- 
haps, however,  it  is  better  to  leave  something  to  the 
anticipation  of  those  who  may  seek  a  new  experience 


in  this  enchanting  region.  For  the  benefit  of  such  I 
will  say,  briefly,  that  the  best  fishing  is  in  May.  The 
ice  breaks  up  about  April  25th,  and  the  fish  are  then 

85 


BROOK     TROUT 

scattered  over  the  lakes  and  streams.  The  monster 
lake  trout,  which  often  weigh  sixteen  to  twenty  pounds, 
can  be  taken  by  surface-trolling  with  a  "gong"  or 
"  spoon,"  and  sometimes  with  a  fly.  The  season,  how- 
ever, is  cold,  and  lacks  the  attractions  of  leafy  June ; 
but  there  are  no  flies  or  mosquitoes  to  annoy.  In  June 
the  trout  lie  in  the  quick  water  of  the  streams  where 
bowlders  make  an  eddy  or  divide  the  current.  Later 
they  are  found  at  the  mouths  of  cold  brooks,  prepar- 
atory to  spawning. 

The  necessary  expenses  of  the  tourist  are  about  $3 
per  day,  whether  he  stops  at  a  hotel,  camps,  or  takes  a 
guide.  The  charge  for  boat  and  guide  is  $2.50  per 
diem;  hotel  fares  from  $1.50  to  $2.50. 

I  was  most  impressed,  in  my  trip  through  the  Adi- 
rondacks,  with  the  beauty  of  the  forest  in  and  around 
Childwold,  the  solitude  of  Long  Lake  and  the  Fulton 
chain,  the  view  from  Lake  Placid  and  over  Mirrcr 
Lake,  with  the  peaks  of  Mount  Marcy  and  its  fellows 
in  the  south,  with  the  vistas  of  woods,  lakes,  and 
streams  along  the  line  of  the  Webb  railroad,  and  par- 
ticularly with  the  superb  prospects  from  the  Chateau- 
guay  road  as  it  climbs  Lyon  Mountain,  which  recalls 
the  scenery  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  I  found  much  of  in- 
terest and  information  in  the  talk  of  the  guides  of  the 
region.  The  older  guides  are,  as  a  rule,  pessimistic  as 
to  the  future  of  the  woods,  and  groan  over  the  change 
from  the  old  sporting  days.  They  do  not  care  for  the 
tourist  business  and  the  hanging  round  the  hotels,  even 

86 


I 


THE     or.  D     ADIRONDACKS 

if  they  make  $3  and  $4  a  day,  or  double  the  wages 
of  a  decade  ago.  The  younger  guides,  who  knew  not 
the  early  days,  and  did  not  fish  and  hunt  with  W.  C. 
Prime,  Kit  Clark,  and  their  fellows,  find  the  present 
conditions  advantageous,  and  welcome  the  increasing 
bands  of  tourists.  But  they  spend  less  and  less  time  in 
hunting  and  fishing  with  their  patrons  and  more  in 
rowing  the  latter  tamely  around  the  lakes,  perhaps  ac- 
companying them  on  a  day  or  two's  journey  through 
the  lakes  and  over  the  "  carries."  In  the  more  remote 
districts  there  is  still  fishing  to  be  had,  and  the  deer 
are  still  fairly  abundant.  I  was  told,  however,  of 
many  instances  of  flagrant  violations  of  the  game 
laws,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  woods  are  not  ade- 
quately supplied  with  or  patrolled  by  guardians. 
Hounding  and  "jacking"  for  deer,  while  forbidden, 
are  still  practised,  and  the  remark  of  a  guide  on  Long 
Lake,  when  questioned  as  to  some  infraction  of  the 
game  laws,  that  "  there  never  was  any  law  on  Long 
Lake,"  emphasizes  the  situation. 

But  while  the  Adirondacks  are  changed  and  are 
changing,  they  will  remain  for  many  years  to  come 
the  great  natural  mountain  and  lake  resort  for  the 
larger  cities  of  the  eastern  seaboard.  They  are  to  our 
generation  what  the  Catskills  were  to  our  grandfathers 
and  even  to  our  fathers  in  youth,  and  if  your  true 
sportsman  must  now  seek  the  far  Canadian  woods  for 
big  fish  and  big  game,  he  cannot  take  with  him  or 
away  the  life-giving  air  and  the  exquisite  scenery  of 
87 


BROOK     TROUT 

the  Adirondack  hills  and  lakes.  He  loses,  but  his  loss 
is  the  gain  of  thousands  and  thousands  of  less  fortunate 
beings,  to  whom  the  woods  and  hills  bring  relief  from 
the  heat  of  summer,  renewed  life  and  strength,  and  a 
keen  realization  of  the  old  saying  that  "man  made 
cities,  but  God  made  the  country." 

Lakes  George  and  Champlain,  which  are  always 
associated  with  the  Adirondacks  in  the  public  mind, 
have  undergone  comparatively  few  changes  during  the 
past  twenty  years,  and  so  do  not  require  more  than  a 
passing  allusion  in  this  sketch.  Lake  George  is  still 
the  same  beautiful  sheet  of  water,  set  in  a  frame  of 
forest-clothed  mountains,  as  when  the  first  French  ex- 
plorer gave  to  it  from  its  azure  depths  the  name  ot 
Saint  Sacrament.  There  are  more  villas  on  its  shores, 
more  boats  upon  its  waters,  a  new  hotel  here  and 
there,  or  an  old  one  restored,  but  summer  after  sum- 
mer the  lake  calls  to  its  lovers  to  return  to  its  beauties 
in  such  a  way  that  they  must  respond.  Lake  Champ- 
lain  now  has  the  fine  Bluff  Point  Hotel,  just  below 
Plattsburg  on  its  western  bank,  to  add  to  its  attrac- 
tions, and  the  tourist,  even  if  he  or  she  is  familiar  with 
both  lakes,  should  not  fail  to  again  traverse  them. 
Their  beauties  never  fade,  and  whether  one  sees  Lake 
Champlain  from  the  slower  and  comfortable  steamboat 
or  the  fine  rushing  trains  of  the  Delaware  &  Hudson, 
which  traverse  its  entire  western  shore,  or  steams 
through  Lake  George,  one  cannot  tire  of  the  infinite 
variety  of  water  and  landscape  which  both  lakes  afford. 


! 


THE     OLD     ADIRONDACKS 

September  is  the  month  of  all  months  to  rightly  see 
and  appreciate  the  air  and  scenery  of  our  Northern 
lakes  and  mountains.  Now  come 
days  filled  with  sunlight  which  does 
not  oppress,  cooled  as  it  is  by  the 
home  wind  of  the  northwest,  and 
now  succeed  nights  whose  frosty  airs 
give  to  the  woods  and  lakes  a  clear- 
ness of  outline  and  to  the  skies  a 
splendor  that  summer  never  brings. 


89 


THE   NEW    ADIRONDACKS. 


THE  Adirondack  Mountains  of  northeastern 
New  York  affords  a  striking  evidence  of  the 
changes  which  advancing  civiHzation  has 
wrought  along  our  eastern  seaboard.  There 
can  be  seen  the  development,  almost  within  a  decade, 
of  a  wilderness  into  a  great  summer  and  autumn  resort, 
dotted  with  luxurious  modern  hotels,  and  traversed  by 
stage-routes  and  railways. 

The  sportsman,  whether  he  be  hunter  or  fisherman, 
familiar  with  even  a  portion  of  the  Adirondack  Moun- 
tains, more  poetically  termed  the  North  Woods,  fifteen 
or  twenty  years  ago,  and  who  now  revisits  the  scenes 
of  his  youth,  will  find  such  visit  a  dream  dispelled,  for 


BROOK     TROUT 

his  is  the  memory  of  their  former  wildness  and  beauty, 
of  trout  rising  on  lakes  and  streams,  of  deer  roaming 
the  dense  woods  and  drinking  from  quiet  waters,  and 
of  a  strange,  wild  life.  With  this  memory,  he  now 
finds  a  large  part  of  the  woods  region  peopled  for  three 
months  of  the  year  with  the  votaries  of  fashion,  with 
steamboats  puffing  on  the  lakes  and  engines  shrieking 
through  the  forests,  with  prosperous  villages  here  and 
there,  and  the  old  wild  life  gone  never  to  return. 

I  open  as  I  write,  an  old  and  well-worn  book,  dear 
to  all  older  American  sportsmen,  written  by  William  C. 
Prime,  and  published  in  1873,  entitled  "I  Go  a-Fish- 
ing,"  and  I  turn  to  two  chapters  respectively  entitled 
"  The  Saint  Regis  Waters  in  Olden  Times,  i860,"  and 
the  "Saint  Regis  Waters  Now,  1872."  Would  that 
the  venerable  author,  now  I  believe  a  very  old  man, 
and  long  since  unable  to  handle  the  rod  and  gun, 
could  revisit  the  Saint  Regis  waters  and  paint  us  their 
scenes  of  to-day.  The  twelve  years  which  elapsed  be- 
tween his  first  and  second  visits  seemed  to  him  to  have 
brought  many  changes,  the  most  marked  ot  which  was 
the  expansion  of  Paul  Smith's  first  little  house,  built 
in  1858,  and  holding  not  more  than  eight  people,  to 
a  large  hotel,  capable  of  accommodating  150  guests. 
On  both  occasions  Mr.  Prime  had  to  drive  into  Paul 
Smith's  from  Port  Kent,  on  Lake  Champlain,  a  dis- 
tance of  fifty-five  miles.  The  rare  old  fisherman  and 
lover  of  nature,  floating  in  his  canoe  on  the  Lower 
Saint  Regis  in  i860,  wrote  as  follows:  "The  day 
94 


I 


THE     NEW     ADIRONDACKS 

had  died  most  gloriously.  The  '  sword  of  the  sun ' 
that  had  lain  across  the  forest  was  withdrawn  and 
sheathed.  There  was  a  stillness  on  land  and  water  and 
in  the  sky  that  seemed  like  the  presence  of  an  invisible 
majesty.  Eastward  the  lofty  pine-trees  rested  their 
green  tops  in  an  atmosphere  whose  massive  blue  seemed 
to  sustain  and  support  them.  Westward  the  rosy 
tints  along  the  horizon  deepened  into  crimson  around 
the  base  of  the  Saint  Regis  hills  and  faded  into  black 
toward  the  north.  No  sign  of  life,  human  or  inhu- 
man, was  anywhere  visible  or  audible  except  with- 
in the  little  boat  where  we  two  floated  ;  and  peace, 
that  peace  that  reigns  where  no  man  is — that  peace 
that  never  dwells  in  the  abodes  of  men — here  held 
silent  and  omnipotent  sway.  Then  came  the  wind 
among  the  pine-trees.  The  gloom  increased  and  a 
ripple  stole  over  the  water.  There  was  a  flapping  of 
one  of  the  lily-pads  as  the  first  wave  struck  them ;  and 
then  as  a  breeze  passed  over  us,  I  threw  two  flies  on 
the  black  ripple.  There  was  a  swift  rush — a  sharp 
dash  and  plunge  in  the  water.  Both  were  struck  at 
the  instant,  and  then  I  had  work  before  me  that  forbade 
my  listening  to  the  voices  of  the  pines.  It  took  five 
minutes  to  kill  my  fish — two  splendid  specimens. 
Meanwhile  the  rip  had  increased  and  the  breeze  came 
fresh  and  steady.  It  was  too  dark  now  to  sec  the  op- 
posite shore,  and  the  fish  rose  at  every  cast.  When  I 
had  half  a  dozen  of  the  same  sort,  and  one  that  lacked 
only  an  ounce  of  being  full  four  pounds,  we  pulled  up 


BROOK     TROUT 

the  killeck  and  paddled  homeward  around  the  wooded 
point.  The  moon  rose,  and  the  scene  on  the  lake  now 
became  magically  beautiful.  The  mocking  laugh  of 
the  loon  was  the  only  cause  of  complaint  in  that  even- 
ing of  splendor.  Did  you  ever  hear  that  laugh?" 
Again  Mr.  Prime  well  says:  "One  who  has  informer 
years  lived  in  the  woods  forms  a  stronger  attachment 
for  that  life  than  a  man  ever  forms  for  any  other.  The 
affection  which  we  have  for  the  companions  of  our 
solitude  is  very  strong.  Hence,  when  I  find  myself  in 
the  woods  the  old  sights  and  sounds  come  back  with 
such  force  that  I  cannot  tear  myself  away." 

I  have  given  Mr.  Prime's  charming  picture  of  the 
Saint  Regis  waters  forty  and  twenty-five  years  ago  so 
that  I  might  the  better,  in  my  feebler  way,  sketch  them 
to-day,  and  by  this  contrast  emphasize  the  difference 
between  our  Northern  lakes  and  mountains  of  the 
middle  and  the  end  of  the  century.  For  the  change 
that  has  transformed  the  Saint  Regis  country  from  a 
wilderness  and  the  delight  of  sportsmen  to  a  fashion- 
able summer  resort,  has  also  taken  place  throughout 
the  North  Woods,  except  in  a  few  portions,  and  will 
not  be  long  in  taking  place  there.  I  reached  Paul 
Smith's  on  a  recent  September  evening  by  a  walk  of 
four  and  a  half  miles  through  a  settled  country  and 
over  a  macadamized  road  from  a  brick  station  on  the 
main  line  of  the  Adirondack  division  of  the  New  York 
Central,  which  runs  from  Utica  to  Montreal.  Dark- 
ness had  fallen  before  I  entered  a  strip  of  woods  through 
96 


THE     NEW     ADIRONDACKS 

which  the  road  runs  for  a  mile  before  it  reaches  Paul 
Smith's,  and  cherishing  the  memory  of  Mr.  Prime's 
picture,  as  I  neared  the  Saint  Regis  waters  I  Hstened 
for  the  laugh  of  the  loon  and  the  wind  among  the 
pines.  So  listening  I  suddenly  stepped  from  the  dark- 
ness of  the  woods  into  a  blaze  of  light  which  flashed 
out  from  the  countless  windows  of  an  enormous 
wooden  hotel,  and  which  were  reflected  far  out  on  the 
waters  of  the  lake.  There  was  no  laugh  of  the  loon, 
but  the  sound  of  oars  in  the  rowlocks  of  numerous 
boats,  and  of  men  and  women's  voices  "  with  fashion, 
not  with  feeling,  softly  freighted."  Gone  in  an  instant 
was  Mr.  Prime's  picture — vanished  the  dreams  of  the 
sportsman — and  I  turned  with  a  sigh  to  the  comforts 
of  civilization  and  the  atmosphere  of  New  York  or 
Newport  in  the  season. 

I  had  heard  of  the  "  camps "  on  the  Saint  Regis 
waters,  and  rising  soon  after  daybreak  the  next  morn- 
ing, I  engaged  a  guide  and  was  rowed  by  him  in  an 
Adirondack  boat  across  the  Lower  Saint  Regis  through 
Spitfire  Pond  and  around  the  beautiful  wooded  shores 
of  the  Upper  Saint  Regis.  The  morning  was  very 
beautiful.  Far  to  the  west  the  Saint  Regis  Mountains 
lifted  their  pine-crowned  peaks  into  the  hazy  blue, 
while  the  sun,  just  risen,  made  the  dancing  ripple  of 
the  lake  seem  like  ridges  of  burning  gold.  The  wind 
blew  soft  and  cool  and  there  was  that  vigor  and  life  in 
the  air  which  one  only  finds  in  the  mountains  at  sun- 
rise.    A  procession  of  boats  laden  with  supplies  for  the 

97 


BROOK     TROUT 


*'  camps  "  plied  between  them  and  the  hotel,  and  two 
naphtha  launches  puffed  hither  and  thither.  I  saw  the 
"camps"  of  Henry  L.  Hotchkiss,  Whitelaw  Reid, 
Charles  A.  Barney,  H.  McKay  Twombly,  Anson 
Phelps  Stokes,  P.  H.  McAlpin,  a  son-in-law  of  William 
Rockefeller,  and  others.  They  are,  for  the  most  part, 
really  villas,  with  sea-walls,  summer-houses,  and  every 
appliance  of  comfort  and  luxury.  The  guide  told  me 
that  in  some  of  these  "  camps  "  there  was  hot  and  cold 
water,  and  in  one  electric  lights,  and  it  all  seemed  to 
me  like  playing  at  roughing  it,  and  as  if  the  title 
"  camp  "  was  the  only  link  that  connected  these  modern 
summer  villas  with  the  old  free  life  of  the  woods.  Why 
does  not  some  modern  essayist  write  of  and  on  "  the 
millionnaire  of  the  wilderness"?  One  finds  strange 
things  in  the  woods,  but  the  sportsman  and  true  lover 
of  nature  can  find  no  stranger  bird  in  the  North  Woods 
than  the  modern  millionnaire.  I  believe  that  the  first 
of  these  "  campers  "  on  the  Upper  Saint  Regis  went  in 
about  fifteen  years  ago,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  guides 
and  natives,  armed  with  a  hair-mattress,  an  air-pillow, 
and  a  nameless  article  of  domestic  utility.  Now  he 
brings  electric  lights  and  naphtha  launches.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  say  that  there  is  little  fishing  in  the  Saint 
Regis  waters  to-day,  and  a  report  that  a  deer  was  seen 
near  there  this  year  is  not  generally  accepted.  So  was 
my  dream  dispelled. 

But  if  Paul  Smith,  with  the  Saint  Regis  region,  is 
now  solely  a  fashionable  resort,  what  shall  be  said  of 
98 


THE     NEW     ADIRONDACKS 

Saranac  Lake,  and  especially  Lake  Placid'?  I  had 
heard  much  of  both  places,  and  I  visited  both.  At 
the  former  I  found  a  large  village  and  a  hotel — the 
Ampersand — the  most  modern,  most  luxurious,  and 
most  pretentious  house  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains, 
under  whose  electric  lights  and  in  whose  dark  wooden 
halls  and  rooms  one  feels  as  if  in  town  in  midwinter, 
and  at  the  latter  I  saw  a  continuous  village  surround- 
ing its  lower  end,  four  or  five  barn-like  wooden  hotels, 
and  golf,  croquet,  and  tennis  in  full  force.  They  have 
golf-links,  by  the  way,  at  or  near  all  the  Adirondack 
hotels  now.  There  is,  however,  a  portion  of  the 
North  Woods  where  the  man  or  woman  who,  whether 
or  not  in  search  of  fish  and  game,  loves  the  sense  of 
remoteness  and  the  feeling  of  the  wide  woods  around 
can  still  find  sport  and  an  idea  at  least  of  primeval 
wildness.  I  refer  to  the  southwestern  and  far  western 
sections,  and  to  that  central  district  which  lies  west  of 
Port  Kent  and  Port  Henry.  In  the  former  lie  the 
Fulton  chain  of  lakes.  Long  Lake  and  Lake  Massa- 
wepie,  on  whose  wooded  shores,  after  a  six-mile  drive 
through  the  virgin  forest,  I  found  the  best  kept  and 
most  comfortable  hotel  in  the  woods,  that  of  Child- 
wold.  In  the  latter  region  are  Blue  Mountain  Lake 
and  a  series  of  lakes  and  mountains  which  are  still 
sportsmen's  resorts,  and  from  which  the  railroad  is  still 
far  distant. 

There  are  two  stand-points  from  which  to  view  our 
Northern  lakes  and  mountains  to-day.    I  have  treated 

99 


BROOK     TROUT 

them  thus  far  from  that  of  the  sportsman  and  lover 
of  the  woods.  The  other  stand-point  from  which 
to  regard  them  is  that  of  the  student  of  the  develop- 
ment of  our  summer  resorts,  and  of  the  believer  in  the 
march  of  modern  improvements.  There  are  five  men 
whom  I  hold  chiefly  responsible  for  the  transformation 
of  the  Adirondacks  from  a  sportsman's  paradise  to  a 
fashionable  summer  resort,  and  these  are  in  order  of 
precedence :  Paul  Smith,  who  entered  the  woods 
from  Vermont  as  a  guide  in  the  early  fifties ;  the  late 
Thomas  C.  Durant,  who  projected  the  Adirondack 
Railroad,  built  from  Saratoga  to  North  Creek  in  the 
early  seventies ;  Le  Grand  Cannon,  who  projected  the 
narrow-gauge  Chateaugay  Railroad,  which  was  first 
built  from  Plattsburg  to  Dannemora  in  1879,  and 
completed  by  successive  stages  to  Saranac  Lake  and 
Lake  Placid  in  1889  and  1890;  "Adirondack"  Mur- 
ray, whose  ephemeral  but  flashing  pen-pictures  of  the 
"  North  Woods "  first  drew  public  attention  to  them 
and  gave  him  his  nom-de-phime  twenty-five  years  ago, 
and  lastly.  Dr.  Seward  Webb,  who  finally  carried 
out  his  long-cherished  plan  of  building  a  trunk-line 
through  the  heart  of  the  wilderness  from  Utica  to 
Montreal  in  1891.  I  should  perhaps  add  to  this  list 
the  names  of  Drs.  Loomis,  Trudeau,  and  others  who 
first  directed  attention  to  the  Adirondacks  as  a  resort 
for  consumptives  and  a  natural  sanitarium,  but  I  find 
that  the  hotel  proprietors  and  many  others  interested 
are  not  anxious  to  have  this  feature  of  the  mountains 


THE     NEW     ADIRONDACKS 

emphasized.  With  the  building  of  the  railroads  and 
the  consequent  bringing  of  the  mountains  within  easy- 
access  of  the  cities,  and  especially  New  York,  the  old 
boarding-houses  and  small  hotels  scattered  here  and 
there,  and  which  are  comparatively  few  in  number, 
have  been  enlarged  or  have  given  place  to  fine  and 
expensive  structures.  Paul  Smith's  has  grown  upon 
and  around  itself  from  a  little  frame  house  accom- 
modating eight  people  to  an  immense  building,  with 
spacious  piazzas  and  hallways,  which  can  hold  nearly 
1,000  guests  and  is  a  city  in  itself  Then  comes  the 
Ampersand,  a  handsome  house  on  Saranac  Lake ;  and 
then  in  succession  the  fine  and  well-situated  Wawbeek 
Lodge,  at  the  foot  of  the  Upper  Saranac  ;  Saranac 
Inn,  at  the  head  of  the  same  lake,  and  the  cluster  of 
large  hotels  at  Lake  Placid,  beginning  with  the  White 
Face  Inn  and  including  the  Ruisseaumont,  Lake 
Placid,  Grand  View,  and  Stevens  Houses.  Scattered 
here  and  there  throughout  the  mountains  there  are  also 
fine  or  comfortable  houses,  such  as  those  in  the  Keene 
Valley,  St.  Hubert's  Inn  and  the  Chateaugay,  Chazy 
Lake,  and  Loon  Lake  Houses  on  the  lakes  of  those 
names. 


AN   ANGLER'S   NOTES   ON   THE 
BEAVERKILL. 


AN   ANGLER'S   NOTES   ON   THE 
BEAVERKILL. 


T'he  Beaverkill. 

IF  there  is  one  stream  more  than  another  that  de- 
serves the  title  of  a  perfect  trout-stream  it  is 
the  Beaverkill.  Rising  in  the  high  western 
Catskills  and  continuing  along  the  high  western 
plateau,  having  an  elevation  of  from  1,500  to  2,500 
feet,  winding  and  twisting  along  between  high  hills 
and  under  deep,  shady  banks  and  having  frequent 
deep  pools,  it  possesses  that  first  requirement,  a  cool 
105 


BROOK     TROUT 

temperature  of  the  water.  Excepting  in  those  rare 
years  when  all  nature  languishes  in  drought,  the  stream 
is  broad,  deep,  and  copious.  To  the  tiy-caster  it  is  the 
ideal  stream,  as  he  can — after  the  spring  "  fresh  "  is 
over — wade  the  entire  stream,  excepting  at  two  or 
three  very  deep  pools  and  at  the  falls.  And  the  wad- 
ing, too,  is  comparatively  easy ;  after  one  has  attempted 
some  of  the  Adirondack  or  Maine  streams,  strewn  with 
great  square  blocks  of  granite,  the  Beaverkill  seems  a 
veritable  boulevard.  The  water,  naturally,  is  as  clear 
as  crystal.  John  Burroughs  says  "  there  are  no  streams 
having  the  brilliancy  of  the  Catskill  streams."  The 
stream,  indeed,  seems  to  possess  every  requirement 
that  a  trout-stream  should  have.  The  bed  of  the 
stream  is  generally  broad,  thus  facilitating  easy  fly- 
casting.  The  entire  stream  is  a  constant  succession  of 
rifts  and  pools,  following  each  other  with  singular  reg- 
ularity and  affording  a  never-ending  source  of  interest. 
The  head-water  of  the  Beaverkill  is  Balsam  Lake,  over 
on  the  western  slope  of  Balsam  Mountain.  I  imag- 
ine it  is  a  very  wild  country  up  that  way,  as  it  is 
entirely  out  of  the  way  of  all  travel.  One  day  while 
hanging  around  Bill  Hardie's,  waiting  for  the  buck- 
board  to  take  me  down  stream,  I  fell  in  with  a  native 
from  that  region.  He  had  some  things  done  up  in  a 
bandana  handkerchief  and  was  tramping  home  ;  he  told 
me  it  was  "  purty  quiet  and  lonesome  up  there,  and 
considerable  unhandy  for  getting  things  in  and  out,  but 
he  felt  that  someone  had  to  live  up  there,  so  he  made 

io6 


AN     ANGLERS     NOTES     ON     THE     BEAVERKILL 

up  his  mind  that  he  would."  Weavers  is  about  as 
far  as  most  anglers  go ;  the  stream  there  is  small,  but 
having  the  same  rifts  and  pools  that  characterize  it 
lower  down.  From  the  falls  to  where  Alder  Brook 
"  comes  in  "  the  Beaverkill  is  only  a  mountain-stream, 
but  from  Alder  Brook  the  bed  of  the  stream  widens 
and  the  mountain-stream  becomes  a  "  little  river,"  and 
from  there  on  down  the  fly-caster  generally  has  plenty 
of  room  for  his  back-cast.  It  will  matter  little  to  the 
fly-caster  where  he  starts  in,  he  will  surely  find  beauti- 
ful water  to  whip  his  flies  over. 

Changes  Caused  by  Floods. 

The  great  rush  of  water  that  flows  every  few  years 
in  the  Beaverkill  causes  many  changes  in  the  bed  of 
the  stream.  One  of  these  big  "  freshes,"  as  they  are 
called,  occurred  about  the  year  1895  and  it  made  great 
havoc,  especially  between  Shin  Creek  and  Ellsworth's. 
Just  below  Shin  Creek  there  was  a  large  pool  on  Abel 
Sprague's  land  that  we  called  the  swimming-hole ;  this 
was  completely  filled  up  with  stones  and  a  flat  rift 
above  was  hollowed  out  into  a  deep  pool.  At  Voor- 
his's  great  changes  took  place,  the  big  pool  called  the 
"  Second  Docking,"  one  of  the  most  enchanting  places 
for  fly-fishing,  was  entirely  turned  about,  the  pool  filled 
up,  and  a  new  channel  formed  back  under  the  hill-side. 
"  Little  Pond  Brook,"  another  pool,  beloved  by  all  old- 
timers,  was  ruined.  At  the  "  Big  Bend,"  about  midway 
between  Jersey's  and  Ellsworth's,  there  was  a  great  up- 
107 


BROOK     TROUT 

heaval  of  rocks  and  stones,  piled  up  fifteen  to  twenty- 
feet  high,  and  the  entire  character  of  the  stream  was 
changed.  I  fear  that  many  a  lusty  trout  met  his  death 
in  that  same  "  fresh,"  for  I  know  the  fishing  was  very 
poor  all  that  spring  and  summer. 

^he  Izaak  Walton  of  the  Beaverkill. 

All  those  old-timers  who  fished  that  part  of  the 
stream  about  Shin  Creek  knew  Mr.  Theodore  In- 
galsbe — "  Uncle  Thee  "  we  called  him.  It  was  my 
good  fortune  to  fish  many  days  with  Uncle  Thee,  and 
my  mind  teems  with  a  thousand  reminiscences  of  fish- 
ing-trips with  him,  up  and  down  the  stream.  Uncle 
Thee  was  the  acknowledged  crack  fly-fisherman  of  the 
Beaverkill.  He  always  caught  fish  ;  he  used  a  ten-foot 
rod,  and,  as  a  rule,  put  out  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  of 
line.  He  was  by  far  the  longest  fly-caster  I  have  known 
on  the  Beaverkill,  and  the  dexterity  with  which  he 
kept  that  long  line  from  "  getting  up  trees "  was  a 
sight  worth  seeing.  I  shall  have  more  to  say  of 
Uncle  Thee  later  on. 

Varieties   of  Trout  in  the  Beaverkill. 

The  New  York  Fish  Commissioners  have  from 
time  to  time  put  a  variety  of  foreign  trout  in  the 
stream ;  just  why  I  cannot  explain,  as  the  native 
trout  is  far  superior  to  all  others  in  every  respect. 
This  was  well  illustrated  by  a  fish  commissioner  of  a 
neighboring  State,  who  remarked  that  "  one  might 
1 08 


I 


AN  ANGLER  S  NOTES  ON  THE  BEAVERKILL 

as  well  try  to  paint  the  rainbow  as  to  improve  on  our 
native  trout."  For  a  time  good  sport  was  had  with 
some  "  California  "  trout — as  they  grew  to  a  large  size, 
they  added  greatly  to  the  sport — but  in  a  few  years 
they  entirely  disappeared.  I  once  had  an  exciting 
time  with  one  of  those  big  "  Californias."  One  June 
afternoon  Uncle  Thee  and  I  strolled  down  to  "  Da- 
vidson's "  Eddy.  We  were  about  to  start  in  when 
Uncle  Thee  discovered  that  he  had  forgotten  his  land- 
ing-net. I  insisted  upon  his  taking  mine.  When  I 
was  about  half  way  down  the  eddy  and  Uncle  Thee 
was  near  the  lower  end  I  hooked  the  big  fellow.  I 
had  on  a  No.  1 2  Cahill  for  a  second  dropper  and  the 
"  California  "  took  it  with  a  rush  that  made  my  blood 
tingle.  I  immediately  shouted  to  Uncle  Thee  to 
bring  the  net.  Just  opposite  a  lot  of  drift  trash 
had  caught  and  toward  this  the  trout  made  frantic 
rushes.  I  was  using  a  nine-foot  four-ounce  rod.  In 
some  way  Uncle  Thee  had  entangled  the  elastic  at- 
tached to  the  net  in  such  a  manner  that  we  could  not 
undo  it,  so  I  told  him  to  net  the  trout  for  me.  I  then 
began  to  reel  up,  the  big  fellow  rushed  and  tugged, 
but  the  little  rod  was  true  and  the  snell  was  one  I 
had  tied  myself,  so  I  kept  up  the  pressure  and  he  soon 
came  along.  Uncle  Thee  made  a  sweep  for  him  but 
missed  him,  and  away  he  flew  for  the  drift  trash. 
Again  I  reeled  him  up,  and  that  time  Uncle  Thee 
slipped  the  net  under  him  and  we  carried  him  on 
shore :  he  measured  over  nineteen  inches  and  was  very 

log 


BROOK     TROUT 

broad  and  deep,  shaped  somewhat  Hke  a  bass.  I  have 
never  caught  a  native  as  large  as  that  in  the  Beaver- 
kill,  SO  cannot  compare  the  gamy  qualities  between 
the  California  and  the  native.  I  have  since  caught  a 
brown  trout  that  measured  over  twenty-two  inches  that 
did  not  begin  to  "  put  up  the  fight  "  that  the  Cali- 
fornia did.  For  a  time  a  few  rainbow  trout  were 
caught,  but  they  soon  ran  out.  Then  we  occasionally 
saw  a  trout  that  for  a  better  name  we  called  "  hy- 
brid," a  pretty,  bright-colored  fish  with  small  red 
spots ;  they  also  disappeared.  Then,  with  a  rush,  came 
the  brown  and  German  trout;  I  say  with  a  rush  be- 
cause they  have  multiplied  so  fast  that  they  now  out- 
number the  native.  Comparisons  are  generally  odious, 
but  they  are  especially  so  when  you  compare  a  brown 
trout  to  a  native.  In  appearance  the  brown  is  scaly, 
flat,  greenish-yellow,  irregular  in  form,  bad  eye,  home- 
ly all  over.  In  the  native  the  scales  are  invisible  ;  he 
is  gold  and  silver,  round  and  symmetrical,  and  as 
beautiful  an  object  as  lavish  nature  produces.  In  a 
sporting  way,  the  brown  rushes  at  a  fly  and  impales 
himself  and  then  holds  back  hard  and  dies  limp  and 
wilted.  The  native,  with  a  gleam  and  a  glint,  darts 
for  the  fly,  and  unless  the  angler's  eye  and  hand  are 
quick,  he  has  taken  the  fly  in  his  mouth,  found  it  is 
not  food,  spit  it  out,  and  is  off,  all  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye.  When  hooked  he  darts  about,  turns  over  and 
over,  is  here,  there,  and  everywhere.  When  netted, 
he  is  still  fighting,  and  keeps  on  fighting  and  kicking 


:■%, 

No. 

I.   Professor 

No.  2.  Coachman 
No.  5.   Equinox  Gnat 

No.  3.   Grizzly  King 

No. 

4.  Scarlet  Ibis 

No.  6.  Camlet  Dun 

No. 

7.  Green  Drake 

No.  8.  Grasshopper 

No.  9.   Fin-Fly 

No. 

10.   Brown  Hen 

No.  II.  Beaverkill 

No.  12.  Brown  Hackle 

No. 

13.  White  Miller 

No.  14-  Black  Gnat 

No.  15. 
Pale  Evening  Dun 

No. 

16.  Soldier  Palmer 

No.  17.  Abbey 

No.  18.  Jungle  Cock 

TROUT   FLIES 


(H:d  somewhat  like  a  bass.     I  have 
ive  as  large  as  that  in  the  Beaver- 
iiinot  compare  the  gamy  qualities  betwecri 
.   lornia  and  the  native.     I  have  since  caught  a 
anikU'-?iy)^i^'o^  mea.^|^^i,B'3be^l3Vfnty-twQoW3«ls«  thm 
d  not  begin  to  "  put   up   the   fight "  that  the  Cali- 
ii>rnia  did.      For  a  time  a   few   rainbow  trout  were 
i  aught,  but  they  soon  ran  out.     Then  we  occasionally 
iw  a  trout  that  foP'!?  "ifmS^  ffe?ffe    we  called  ''  hy- 
^  ifit^'jsftn^fff^fit.i'Vi  bright-colored    fish    wirfidiSrtiafl? -fe*??^ 
s  30ts ;  they  also  disitppeared.    Then,  with  a  rush,  came 
tie  brown      -'  ^  -i  trout;  I  say  with  a  rush  be- 

cause the  ed  so  fast  that  they  now  out- 

run!' i sons  are  generally  odious, 

lut  '  '  :n  vou  compare  a  brown 

rfit,  V:  '  (-ye,  home- 

in '  visible ;  he 

al.  and  as 
..  -^        .uices.  „In  a.- 

aWacHawoia  .£i  .oM  IMisv^sQ  .ii.oM        nsH  nwoiB  .01  .oM 

'■•  ml;    v-iv.  tin    brown    ri>  iifs  at  w  tly  and   impales 

:  dies  limp  and 
d  a  glint,  darts 

uth,  found  it  is 

;ne  twinkling  of 

ioi>ut,  turns  over  and 

■uTc.     When   netted. 


.51  .oM      ^    ""i<^S^    iBiiOSMi'%i.o'Vt 


aaij-q  TU05IT 


AN  ANGLER  S  NOTES  ON  THE  BEAVERKILL 

to  the  bitter  end.  The  brown  is  more  of  a  cannibal 
than  the  native ;  in  fact,  most  brown  trout  that  I  have 
opened  have  contained  trout,  some  of  which  have 
been  a  fourth  as  long  as  themselves.  As  food,  the 
flavor  of  the  brown  becomes  "  weedy  "  after  the  mid- 
dle of  May  and  is  decidedly  unpleasant  to  the  taste, 
though  early  in  the  season  he  is  not  so  bad.  The 
native  is  sweet  and  delicious  as  long  as  the  stream  is 
up.  All  talk  now  about  the  brown  trout  is  futile; 
they  are  there  to  stay  and  will  remain  as  long  as 
there  are  trout  in  the  stream. 

Flies. 
One  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  native  trout  is  that 
they  will  seldom  rise,  in  the  daytime,  to  a  fly  that  has 
much  red  in  its  composition.  The  most  successful 
flies  are  the  dull,  modest-colored  ones.  The  following 
list  is  as  complete  as  needed :  Cahill,  Marston's 
Fancy,  Drab  Wing  Cowdung,  March  Brown  and 
Ginger  March  Brown,  Whirling  Dun,  Black  Spinner, 
Coachman,  Black  Gnat,  Orvis's  Red  Fox,  and  Yellow 
May  or  Green  Drake  on  No.  12  or  lo  hooks.  My 
preference  is  for  a  Sproat  hook.  I  like  a  long,  slender 
point  and  a  fair-sized  barb.  The  O'Shaughnessy  is 
the  best  hook  for  big  flies,  but  is  too  clumsy  for  any- 
thing less  than  a  No.  8.  The  Cahill  fly  should  have 
light-brown  speckled  wings;  they  are  often  tied  too 
dark.  In  my  opinion  the  Cahill  is  the  best  fly  on  the 
Beaverkill ;  it  was  the  best  when  I  first  fished  the  stream, 


BROOK     TROUT 


and  it  is  the  best  to-day.  It  would  be  difficult  to  say 
why  this  fiy  has  remained  so  killing  when  others  have 
had  their  season  and  then  have  proved  worthless.  Of 
course,  the  angler  may  increase  the  above  list  a  hun- 
dred fold ;  he  may  use  a  Hackle,  a  Professor,  or  a  Queen 
of  the  Water  with  occasional  success,  but  in  my  ex- 
perience the  cast  that  kills  is  a  Cahill  tor  a  stretcher 
and  a  Marston's  Fancy  and  a  Drab  Wing  Cowdung 
for  droppers.  The  Marston's  Fancy  is  tied  in  various 
patterns,  but  the  one  I  have  found  the  best  is  that 
shown  in  Mrs.  Marbury's  "  Favorite  Flies."  But  that 
book  must  not  be  a  guide  to  the  Cahill,  as  Fig.  1 2 1  in 
"Favorite  Flies"  is  a  very  different  fly.  Fig.  118  is 
more  like  a  Cahill ;  possibly  it  is  a  typographical  error 
in  giving  121  instead  of  1 18.  The  body  of  the  Cow- 
dung  should  be  a  light  greenish-yellow,  not  a  cinnamon 
color.  The  Yellow  May  and  Green  Drake  are  used 
in  May  only,  when  the  May  fly  is  on  the  water.  The 
Coachman  and  Black  Gnat  are  used  in  the  evening,  es- 
pecially in  June  and  early  July.  Uncle  Thee  always 
used  a  Coachman  for  a  stretcher;  he  was  frequently 
criticised  for  this,  but  his  reason  for  doing  so,  as  he 
confided  to  me,  was  simply  that  he  could  see  it  better. 
A  No.  10  fly,  fifty  or  sixty  feet  away  and  partly  under 
water,  is  not  a  particularly  conspicuous  object  at  best, 
and  the  white  wings  of  the  Coachman  were  probably 
more  so  than  the  usual  drab  wing.  Orvis's  Red  Fox  is 
a  good  fly,  so  also  is  the  Whirling  Dun.  The  March 
Brown  and  Ginger  March  Brown  are  to  be  depended 


AN     ANGLERS     NOTES     ON     THE     BEAVERKILL 

upon,  also  the  Black  Spinner.  The  Orvis's  Red  Fox  is 
also  the  correct  pattern  for  the  Beaverkill  fly,  which  is 
tied  in  a  score  ot"  different  ways. 

A  brown  trout  will  take  anything  from  a  Parma- 
cheene  Belle  to  a  brass  button.  I  met  a  fisherman  last 
year  who  was  greatly  exercised  over  a  brown  trout  he 
had  caught  under  the  bridge  below  Joe  Cammer's ;  he 
thought  it  looked  mighty  big  and  had  opened  it  and 
found  a  snake  eighteen  inches  long  inside.  That  was 
a  good  story,  but  not  half  so  good  as  the  famous  one 
told  by  Jerry  Durgin,  down  in  Maine.  Jerry  was  out 
with  a  "  Sporter  "  when  they  "  hooked  a  trout  that  only 
measured  twelve  inches  but  weighed  two  and  one-half 
pounds ;  they  cut  him  open,  when  out  jumped  a  mink ; 
they  caught  the  mink  and  took  it  home  and  put  it  in 
a  cage,  and  by  and  by  it  had  two  little  minks."  An  old 
friend  of  mine  who  lives  on  the  Beaverkill  told  me 
with  considerable  excitement  of  a  fisherman  down  be- 
low Rockland  who  had  taken  three  trout  that  weighed 
over  three  pounds  apiece.  "  Did  he  get  them  on  a 
fly  *?  "  I  inquired.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  on  a  fly,  or  grass- 
hopper, or  something." 

One  Sunday  in  the  spring  of  1899  ^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  bridge 
at  Craig-e-clare,  watching  the  trout  rise  to  the  natural 
fly  on  the  water.  I  observed  that  the  smaller  ones 
jumped  clear  out  of  the  water  for  the  fly,  but  noticed 
also  that  the  big  fellows  never  came  q?/He  to  the  top, 
but  moved  about  freely,  apparently  feeding  on  the 
sunken  flies.     The  idea  occurred  to  me  to  use  a  small 

"3 


BROOK     TROUT 


14  or  12  fly  as  a  stretcher.  I  tried  it  the  following 
day  and  have  done  so  very  often  since  and  with  excel- 
lent result.  The  sunken  fly  is  much  smaller  than  the 
fly  on  the  surface  of  the  water. 

Casting  a  Fly. 

In  casting,  I  believe  in  using  all  the  line  the  width 
of  the  stream  will  permit ;  the  point  is  to  keep  as  far 
out  of  sight  as  possible.  Never  cast  directly  across 
from  you,  as  the  fly  will  float  back  toward  you  and 
leave  a  slack  line,  but  by  casting  a  trifle  below,  the  fly 
floats  away  from  you.  Don't  neglect  the  side  of  the 
stream  you  are  on,  nor  the  middle  of  the  stream ;  cast 
out  your  flies  light  and  easy,  being  careful  to  cover  the 
entire  pool,  even  the  very  shallow  places,  for  trout,  es- 
pecially in  early  spring,  will  run  into  shallow  water  to 
sun  themselves.  If  you  have  a  rise  and  miss  the  trout, 
don't  cast  back  immediately,  but  wait  a  minute  and 
then  cast  with  the  utmost  care  over  the  spot  where  the 
trout  arose.  Don't  put  your  flies  too  near  each  other, 
they  should  be  from  two  and  one-half  to  three  feet 
apart.  Always  try  to  keep  the  second  dropper  on  the 
top  of  the  water,  there  is  more  sport  in  hooking  one 
trout  on  the  rise  than  a  dozen  underwater;  in  the 
former  you  feel  that  you  have  fairly  earned  your  fish. 
If  you  are  a  novice  in  the  gentle  art,  try  counting 
three.  One,  you  pick  the  flies  quickly  from  the  water. 
Two,  you  allow  the  line  to  lengthen  out  behind. 
Three,  you  make  the  cast ;  if  the  cast  is  a  long  one 
114 


I< 


-^ 


AN  angler's  notes  ON  THE  BEAVERKILL 

count  two  and  three  for  the  back  cast  and  four  for  the 
cast.  Use  your  wrist  chiefly  and  don't  be  afraid  of 
your  rod.  Take  hold  of  it  as  though  you  could  whip 
a  horse  with  it,  give  it  life,  put  force  into  your  cast;  so 
long  as  your  wrist  makes  the  cast  the  rod  will  not  be 
injured.  Remember  to  take  time  between  the  back 
cast  and  the  cast ;  there  must  be  an  interval,  otherwise 
your  flies  will  not  lengthen  out  behind  or  above. 
When  you  make  the  cast  send  the  flies  out,  not  down ; 
cast  as  though  you  intended  to  make  the  end  fly  strike 
some  imaginary  object  three  feet  above  the  water. 
The  philosophy  of  the  science  is  simply  to  make  the 
rod  bend — that's  all ;  if  the  rod  bends  to  and  fro  the 
line  will  follow.  Try  your  rod  before  you  run  out  the 
line  and  see  how  the  snap  of  your  wrist  does  the  work. 
Switch  it  back,  pause  a  moment,  then  switch  it  for- 
ward. Use  your  wrist  all  you  can ;  your  arm  simply 
follows  in  obedience  to  the  movement  of  your  wrist. 
Keep  your  rod  perpendicular  whenever  possible ;  in  the 
back  cast  the  rod  should  be  a  trifle  to  the  right,  but 
the  forward  cast  is  from  the  perpendicular.  Put  your 
thumb  up  the  rod  and  directly  back  of  it ;  this  will 
prevent  the  sweep  from  going  too  far  back ;  in  the  cast 
the  thumb  is  still  at  an  angle,  never  lengthened  out. 
The  tip  of  the  rod  covers  about  one-half  of  a  semi- 
circle. Look  at  your  watch;  let  the  hours  9  to  3 
represent  the  semicircle ;  the  tip  of  your  rod  covers  that 
part  of  the  semicircle  represented  by  1 1  and  2.  Be 
careful  to  get  all  your  line  and  leader  out  straight  and 
"5 


ROOK     TROUT 


taut ;  your  flies  will  then  drop  lightly  on  the  water ;  that 
is  the  object  to  be  attained,  to  have  your  flies  light  nat- 
urally on  the  water,  and  at  the  same  time  to  have  your 


ii6 


AN     ANGLERS     NOTES     ON     THE      BEAVERKILL 

line  and  leader  taut  from  the  tip  of  the  rod ;  you  are 
then  all  ready  to  strike  when  you  have  a  rise.  Re- 
member, the  wrist  does  it  all,  makes  the  cast  and 
strikes  the  fish.  Don't  wave  your  arm  as  though  you 
were  signalling  the  Empire  Express. 

Rods. 

In  fishing  from  a  canoe  on  still  water  I  prefer  a 
light,  whippy  rod,  but  in  fishing  the  Beaverkill,  espe- 
cially when  the  water  is  high,  a  rod  can  hardly  be  too 
stiff.  The  water  carries  the  flies  along  rapidly;  the 
trout  darts  out  like  a  flash;  now,  if  your  rod  is  long 
and  whippy,  the  tip,  when  you  strike,  will  dip  a  long 
distance  toward  the  water  before  it  sweeps  back  to 
hook  the  fish,  and  an  appreciable  amount  of  time  is 
thus  lost ;  with  a  stifl"  rod  you  save  that  time  and  are 
therefore  more  likely  to  hook  your  fish.  //  is  hooking  a 
fish  on  the  rise  that  is  the  cream  ofjiy-fishing.  My  favor- 
ite rod  for  the  Beaverkill,  especially  in  the  spring,  is 
a  six-jointed  split  bamboo,  that  measures  nine  feet  and 
weighs  four  ounces.  That  style  of  rod  is  frequently 
used  on  rapid  streams;  the  short  joints  add  to  the  stiff- 
ness of  the  rod.  A  rod  of  that  style,  in  order  to  stand 
the  strain,  should  not  only  be  hand-made  but  should  be 
made  by  an  expert,  and  should  cost  from  $30  to  $50. 
Very  often  a  rod  that  is  too  whippy  can  be  stiffened  by 
taking  a  couple  of  inches  from  each  joint.  There  is 
nothing  more  heart-rending  to  the  fly-caster  than  to 
have  trout  rise  to  his  flies  and  not  be  able  to  hook  them. 


ROOK     TROUT 


Landing  a  I'rout. 

When  you  hook  a  good-sized  trout  in  quick  water, 
never  try  to  reel  him  up  to  you,  but  keep  a  taut  line 
and  gradually  work  down  below  him,  reeling  in  as  you 
move  along;  then  lead  him  back  of  some  rock  or  in 
some  part  of  the  stream  where  the  water  seems  less 
swift ;  then  reel  up  all  the  line  excepting  about  six  or 
eight  feet;  this  you  take  up  inch  by  inch  in  your  fingers 
until  you  judge  the  length  of  line  and  leader  is  such 
that  you  can  reach  your  net  under  him ;  then  take  the 
rod  in  your  left  hand  and  hold  the  line  between  your 
fingers  and  thumb — you  will  thus  be  ready  to  give  him 
line  in  case  he  makes  a  rush ;  then  lead  him  toward 
you  from  the  side,  not  from  above  or  below,  or  move 
over  to  him,  raise  the  tip  of  your  rod  until  the  trout  is 
near  enough,  and  then  slip  the  net  under  him.  Kill 
him  at  once  by  striking  him  a  sharp  blow  between  the 
eyes — never  let  a  trout  die  in  your  creel ;  then,  finally, 
take  the  hook  from  his  mouth,  and  if  you  have  induced 
him  to  take  your  fly  on  the  surface  you  can  feel  that 
you  have  done  a  good  stroke  and  fairly  earned  your 
trout.  If  the  trout  is  a  big  fellow  you  may  be  obliged 
to  lead  him  down  to  the  pool  below,  but  it's  always  a 
bit  more  sport  to  land  your  trout  in  a  rift,  if  you  can. 

Leaders. 

The  leader  is  the  most  important  part  of  the  fly^ 
caster's  outfit ;  the  length  must  be  guided  by  the  length 

ii3 


AN  ANGLER  S  NOTES  ON  THE   BEAVERKILL 

of  the  rod  ;  it  should  reach,  after  the  end  fly  is  attached, 
from  the  reel  to  within  three  inches  of  the  tip  ;  the 
color  should  be  a  light  blue,  commonly  called  mist 
color;  the  strength  should  be  equal  to  the  strength  of 
the  largest  trout  you  expect  to  catch ;  this  you  must 
decide  by  putting  your  leader  to  a  severe  test ;  after 
first  soaking  it  well,  hook  one  end  over  some  conven- 
ient object,  and  then  pull — don't  be  afraid  of  it,  pull 
hard ;  if  it  breaks  you  can  easily  tie  it  again.  Don't 
continue  to  use  a  leader  too  long;  it  is  wise  to  give  it 
a  good  test  two  or  three  times  a  day.  In  attaching  the 
droppers,  I  preter,  for  stream-fishing,  to  put  the  fly  di- 
rectly on  the  leader  and  not  on  a  loop.  The  object  to 
be  obtained  is  to  keep  the  fly  from  whipping  around 
the  leader.  My  experience  has  taught  me  that  the  fly 
stands  out  better  when  fastened  directly  to  the  leader ; 
this  is  done  simply  by  looping  up  an  inch  or  so  of  the 
leader  just  above  a  knot  and  then  slipping  the  loop  of 
the  fly  over  the  leader,  then  putting  the  fly  through  the 
loop  and  pulling  it  taut;  the  snell  of  the  fly  must,  of 
course,  be  previously  well  soaked.  In  putting  on  the 
fly  be  sure  to  have  the  point  tozuard  you,  otherwise  it 
will  float  on  its  back.  This  is  an  important  matter 
that  you  cannot  be  too  careful  about ;  watch  constantly 
to  see  that  your  flies  float  naturally  and  not  upside 
down.  I  do  not  like  drawn  gut,  it  is  too  brittle ;  it 
seems  to  dry  very  quickly,  and  when  dry  breaks  with 
a  snap. 


BROOK     TROUT 


Sazvdijst. 

There  are  two  subjects  that  sadly  need  the  attention 
of  the  Fish  Commissioners  on  the  Beaverkill — the  ques- 
tion of  sawdust  and  "  posting."  The  saw-mill  at  V^oor- 
his's  has  ruined  all  that  part  of  the  stream  from  Voorhis's 
to  Ellsworth's  for  fly-casting ;  the  bait  fisherman  may 
be  able  to  catch  fish  by  sinking  his  worm,  but  the  fly- 
caster  cannot  catch  trout  when  his  flies  float  on  saw- 
dust or  a  piece  of  scantling.  Unfortunately  for  the 
fisherman,  the  saw-mill  people  and  the  commissioners 
had  a  legal  set-to,  in  which  the  commissioners  did  not 
secure  their  point ;  this  was  virtually  a  victory  for  the 
saw-mill.  Prior  to  that  lawsuit  the  sawdust  was  carted 
over  on  the  bank,  but  afterward  it  was  dumped  into 
the  stream,  and  especially  so  when  a  luckless  fly- 
caster  happened  that  way.  It  is  sad  to  think  of  the 
beautiful  pools  that  are  now  ruined — all  that  lovely 
stretch  of  water  above  and  below  "  Pappy  "  Dumond's 
and  along  by  and  below  Mr.  Jersey's  place.  A  move- 
ment was  once  started  to  induce  the  saw-mill  people 
to  put  in  a  "  blower,"  but  it  fell  through.  Something 
should  be  done, 

Posi/ng. 

This  is  a  vexed  question.  Some  fishermen  pay  the 
twenty-five  or  fifty  cents;  others  refuse,  and  go  right 
along  and  "  talk  back  "  at  the  farmers.  Some  farmers 
refuse  all  overtures  to  "  fish  over  them,"  and  threaten  to 


AN  ANGLER  S  NOTES  ON  THE  BEAVERKILL 

shoot,  etc.  All  this  is  very  unfortunate.  It  would  be 
a  good  thing  for  the  fishermen  if  all  the  farmers  from 
Flint's  docking  to  Voorhis's  would  form  an  association 
,and  charge  a  fee  to  fish  over  the  entire  stretch,  so  much 
per  day  or  week,  and  in  return  for  this  the  farmer 
should  build  small  ponds  to  keep  the  fry  furnished  by 
the  State  for  a  year  or  so,  and  then  run  them  into 
the  stream. 

A  Limit. 

If  that  old  Frank  Forrester  law,  in  force  once  upon 
a  time  on  Long  Island,  could  have  been  made  general 
and  enforced,  what  a  blessing  it  would  be  to  the  angler 
of  to-day  I  What  slaughter  there  has  been  I  Two  men 
killed  700  trout  in  one  day,  one  man  killed  250,  another 
200,  and  so  on.  One  Decoration  Day,  at  Sprague's, 
enough  trout  to  fill  a  wash-boiler  were  brought  in.  It 
was  then  that  Uncle  Thee  proposed  that  we  all  agree 
to  kill  only  eighteen  trout  a  day  hereafter.  The  sea- 
son is  too  long;  April  16th  to  August  31st  is  unreason- 
able. July  15th  should  end  it.  How  nice  it  would  be 
if  one  stream  in  New  York  was  set  aside  for  fly-casting 
only,  the  same  as  is  frequently  done  in  Maine.  To 
think  of  the  Beaverkill  freed  from  sawdust  and 
reserved  for  fly-casting  only.  How  ecstatic  I  It  is 
almost  too  enjoyable  a  day-dream  to  permit  yourself  to 
indulge  in. 


BROOK.     TROUT 

'T^he  Month  of  May. 

May  is  the  fly-casters'  month;  the  stream  then  is 
generally  at  a  good  height  for  wading;  the  flies  are 
on  the  water  and  the  trout  are  on  the  rise ;  the  birds 
are  flying  north  and  all  the  air  is  filled  with  the  melody 
of  their  song;  the  mountain-sides  are  painted  in  their 
exquisite  tints,  not  the  gorgeous  reds  and  yellows  of 
autumn,  but  the  pale  tints  of  early  spring :  the  mauves, 
the  steel-grays,  the  lemon-yellows  and  pink  and  soft 
purple  and  blue — all  those  light  impressions — with 
only  here  and  there  a  bit  of  red  maple  or  green  hem- 
lock to  heighten  the  color.  Then  to  start  in  at  some 
part  of  the  stream  that  you  have  decided  upon  the  pre- 
vious evening ;  to  feel  the  rush  of  water  about  you  and 
the  constantly  moving  pictures  of  nature ;  to  breathe 
in  deep  the  pure,  cool  mountain-air ;  the  excitem.ent  of 
casting  your  flies  and  the  constant  expectation  of  a 
lusty  trout — here  is  a  life  worth  living.  How  the 
hours  fly  by  I  You  look  at  your  watch ;  it  is  two 
o'clock ;  you  say  to  yourself,  "  What  have  you  done  ?  " 
"  Where  have  you  been  *?  It  seems  but  a  moment  ago 
that  you  started  in  ;  how  the  time  does  fly  I  "  What  a 
joy  it  is  to  be  entirely  alone  with  nature — to  feel  that 
you  are  a  part  of  all  that  is  going  on;  that  the  birds 
are  singing  for  you,  the  flowers  are  blooming  for  you ; 
the  lovely  violets  on  the  edge  of  the  water,  the  great 
splashes  of  white  blossoms  on  the  "shin-hopple,"  the 
rich  red  of  the  wake-robin  and  the  white  and  red  flowers 


AN     ANGLERS     NOTES     ON     THE      BEAVERKILL 

of  the  trillium — all  for  you  I  And  then,  again,  to  reach 
the  pool  that  is  your  especial  delight,  the  pool  that  you 
dreamed  of  all  winter.  You  wade  in  carefully  and  take 
your  stand  from  where  you  can  cast  your  flies  over  all 
the  favorite  spots,  every  one  of  which  brings  back  a 
memory  of  some  former  visit  when  you  had  landed  a 
beauty.  Ah,  that's  the  life !  to  feel  that  you  are  a  part 
of  Nature,  and  that  your  love  for  her  is  the  one  great, 
absorbing  theme  of  your  existence.  Love  and  caress 
Nature,  and  she  will  repay  you  a  thousandfold.  She 
will  always  prove  your  true,  steadfast  friend,  always 
trying  to  be  a  pleasure  and  a  comfort  to  you,  growing 
dearer  to  you  and  more  lovable  to  you  as  the  years 
roll  by. 

Cutting  Sticks. 

On  Sundays,  Uncle  Thee  and  I  were  accustomed  to 
stroll  along  the  border  of  the  stream  and  ramble  through 
the  wooded  sides  in  search  of  walking-sticks.  Did  you 
ever  hunt  for  a  good  stick,  one  that  was  straight  and 
strong  and  having  a  good  handle  ?  Such  a  stick  is 
hard  to  find,  hence  the  fascination  of  hunting  for  one. 
It's  curious  how  few  sticks  are  straight  to  begin  with, 
and  if  you  find  a  straight  one,  the  handle  is  imperfect, 
and  so  you  go  poking  about  in  the  woods  with  a  never- 
ending  delight  over  the  pursuit.  Incidentally,  on  these 
trips,  we  also  kept  our  eyes  open  for  some  big  trout 
that  might  rise  and  disclose  his  "■  home,"  possibly  be- 
hind some  big  rock  or  under  some  bank  or  other  hid- 
ing-place from  where  he  could  dart  out  for  a  passing 

12.3 


BROOK     TROUT 

fly.  When  we  reached  Davidson's  Eddy  we  were 
sure  to  see  some  evidences  of  big  trout.  Davidson's 
Eddy  is  probably  the  most  celebrated  pool  on  the 
Beaverkill.  The  stream  along  there  runs  in  a  southerly 
direction,  and  just  at  the  eddy  there  is  a  high  hill  on 
the  western  side  that  shades  the  pool  most  of  the  after- 
noon. It  is  shallow  along  the  eastern  bank,  and  deep 
under  the  wooded  banks  on  the  western  side,  the  very 
conditions  that  a  fly-caster  especially  loves.  It  is  thus 
a  particularly  interesting  pool  for  afternoon  and  even- 
ing fishing.  At  Davidson's  Eddy  we  would  sit  down 
and  watch  for  the  trout  to  rise.  Uncle  Thee  was  more 
or  less  given  to  sentimentalizing  on  these  Sunday  ram- 
bles. One  of  his  favorite  hobbies  was  that  time-worn 
subject,  "•  things  always  adjust  themselves,"  and  many 
were  the  stories  he  would  tell  to  illustrate  this,  some  of 
them  highly  interesting  and  not  a  few  quite  dramatic. 
Uncle  Thee  insisted  that  if  you  transgressed  against 
the  laws  of  God  and  Nature  you  suffered,  and  if  you 
lived  up  to  them  you  were  repaid.  "  That  every  man 
carried  about  in  his  own  heart  a  heaven  or  a  hell,  the 
one  always  ready  to  please  and  exalt  him  if  he  did  right 
and  the  other  to  depress  and  torment  him  if  he  did 
wrong."  Uncle  Thee's  religion  was  a  very  simple  one ; 
he  had  turned  against  all  creeds,  he  said.  "  As  I  grow 
older  my  faith  and  belief  in  an  Almighty  Being  grows 
stronger.  I  find  that  all  the  religion  I  need  is  the  im- 
plicit belief  that  my  Woe  for  God  grows  deeper  and 
stronger,  and  that  my  faith  and  love  shall  remain  stead- 
124 


AN     ANGLERS     NOTES     ON     THE     BEAVERKILL 

fast  to  the  end."  The  expression  of  his  face  showed  that 
his  words  were  true,  always  kindly  and  loving,  quiet 
and  sincere,  faithful  and  true,  and  with  all  a  childlike 
simplicity  that  won  all  hearts.  Even  Bill  Hardie 
allowed  him  to  fish  "  over  him." 

"H^  kept  his  soul  21ns potted 

As  he  went  upon  his  -way" 

'"''He  had  time  to  see  the  beauty 

I'hat  the  Lord  spread  all  around  ; 
He  had  time  to  hear  the  music 

In  the  shells  the  children  found.  " 

A  Hobby. 

The  idea  of  a  hobby  is  at  least  interesting  to  all 
men,  to  have  some  diversion  to  fill  your  leisure  hours 
and  to  look  forward  to,  to  dream  over  on  dismal  win- 
ter days,  and  to  divert  your  mind  when  cares  annoy. 
What  hobby  can  be  more  interesting,  more  captivating, 
more  satisfying  than  the  hobby  of  fly-casting  ^  There 
are  a  hundred  and  one  features  to  it — you  can  tie  your 
own  flies,  make  your  own  rods,  mend,  fix,  adjust,  always 
some  delightful  things  to  "  tinker  "  over  or  with,  arrang- 
ing your  flies  and  all  that,  and  then  the  "  art "  itself 
Nothing  can  be  more  enjoyable  than  to  wade  a  stream, 
to  feel  the  rush  of  water  about  you,  the  constant  excite- 
ment, the  forgetting  of  all  other  affairs,  the  out-door 
125 


ROOK     TROUT 


life,  the  health  and  appetite,  the  meeting  with  other 
anglers  and  the  telling  over  of  the  day's  sport.  Here  is 
a  fascination  that  will  last  you  all  your  life,  and  be  a 
delight  to  you  in  extreme  old  age.  Let  me  warn  you, 
my  reader,  if  you  are  not  a  lover  of  Nature  and  out-door 
life  you  are  missing  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  this 
world  affords. 


126 


WINGED  ENEMIES  OF  BROOK  TROUT. 


WINGED  ENEMIES  OF  BROOK  TROUT. 


SOME  idea  of  the  serious  loss  of  fish  and  fish- 
eggs  caused  by  myriads  of  enemies  in  and 
about  the  waters  is  conveyed  in  a  paragraph 
of  Dr.  Day's  book  upon  the  British  and  Irish 
SalmonidiZ.  He  says  :  "  So  enormous  is  the  loss  which 
occurs  among  the  eggs  and  young,  that  in  such  a  river 
as  the  Severn  the  annual  produce  of  salmon  and  grilse 
at  the  present  time  (1887)  consists  of  about  20,000 
fish.  Were  all  the  ova  of  one  female  salmon  of  about 
twenty  pounds'  weight  to  be  hatched  and  attain  ma- 
turity, they  would  suffice  for  keeping  up  the  stock  to 
its  present  condition."  The  Severn  is  2oo  miles  long 
and  receives  five  principal  tributaries. 
129 


BROOK     TROUT 


Chief  among  the  destroyers  of  fish  are  certain  birds 
and  winged  insects.  The  common  crow,  the  crow 
blackbird,  hawks,  bluejay,  some  owls,  grebes,  gulls,  and 
terns,  have  the  reputation  ot  poaching  to  some  extent, 
but  their  depredations  are  much  less  in  our  State  than 
the  ravages  of  such  birds,  for  example,  as  the  herons, 
kingfisher,  certain  ducks,  loons,  and  fish-hawk.  Chief 
among  these  is  the 

Night-hcrou. 

In  the  report  of  the  Pennsylvania  Fish  Commission 
for  1897  Dr.  B.  H.  Warren  publishes  some  interesting 
notes  on  the  destructive  work  of  the  black-crown  night- 
heron.  In  a  small  pool  at  Westchester,  Pa.,  twenty- 
five  goldfish  were  placed.  Two  night-herons  caught 
all  but  one  of  them  before  the  following  morning.  A 
night-heron  killed  near  a  branch  of  White  Clay  Creek, 
in  Pennsylvania,  had  the  tail  of  a  common  sucker  of 
about  twelve  inches  long  projecting  four  inches  beyond 
its  bill.  The  head  and  shoulders,  except  the  bony  por- 
tion, were  eaten  away  by  the  gastric  juice  of  the  stom- 
ach. Dr.  Warren  examined  the  stomachs  of  about 
twenty  ot  these  herons  which  were  shot  in  June  near 
their  breeding-ground,  and  found  fish  remains  in  all 
of  them. 

In  July,  1883,  ^^-  Rudolph  Hessel  shot  a  night- 
heron  containing  the  heads  of  seventy-eight  young 
carp.  This  bird  is  sometimes  called  blue  heron,  and  is 
also  quite  generally  called  a  crane,  but  this  is  erroneous. 


ENEMIES     OF     BROOK     TROUT 

It  is  found  in  large  numbers,  and  in  the  breeding 
season  forms  rookeries  which  are  a  serious  menace  to 
the  fishing  waters  of  the  neighborhood.  It  is  extreme- 
ly shy  and  cautious,  fishing  chiefly  at  night  or  early 
in  the  morning.  It  stands  perfectly  motionless  in  the 
water  until  a  fish  comes  within  reach,  when  it  strikes 
with  its  long,  sharp,  heavy  bill,  which  deals  death  to 
any  of  the  fish  kind. 

They  have  been  caught  in  steel  traps  set  in  ponds 
within  twenty  feet  of  a  hatchery  building.  The  traps 
are  set  in  shallow  water,  taking  precaution  to  secure 
them  so  as  to  prevent  the  bird  flying  away  with  them. 
When  a  heron  is  captured  in  a  trap,  he  should  be  killed 
at  once  with  a  long  club  or  a  load  of  shot.  Great  care 
should  be  taken  to  keep  out  of  the  reach  of  his  mur- 
derous bill.  Once  I  had  the  misfortune  to  be  struck 
by  a  wounded  heron,  and  I  am  sure  that  if  his  bill  had 
struck  me  squarely  on  the  hand,  it  would  have  gone 
entirely  through.  As  it  was,  the  blow  was  a  glancing 
one,  striking  me  on  the  knuckle,  but  it  stripped  off  the 
flesh  to  the  very  bone.  I  have  sometimes  heard  a  great 
flopping  and  disturbance  in  the  waters  of  our  Caledonia 
trout-brook  at  night,  and  upon  going  to  the  place  in 
the  morning  found  heron  tracks  in  the  mud,  and  some- 
times a  trout  from  one-half  pound  to  two  pounds  in 
weight,  and  occasionally  larger,  with  a  hole  in  its  back 
or  side,  into  which  you  could  put  your  finger.  I 
always  supposed  the  fish  escaped  on  account  of  its 
being  too  strong  and  lively  for   the  heron,  although 


BROOK     TROUT 

mortally  wounded.  I  have  seen  as  many  as  a  dozen 
six-inch  trout  in  the  throat  and  stomach  of  a  heron 
killed  in  the  early  morning  hours. 

In  Germany,  and  elsewhere  in  Europe,  herons  work 
great  injury  to  the  fish-culturists.  In  the  government 
fisheries  the  regulations  prescribe  that  they  must  be 
killed  and  their  roosts  destroyed,  but  in  spite  of  these 
measures  their  numbers  are  seriously  large  in  many 
places,  and  owners  ot  ponds  trap  them  with  steel  traps 
baited  with  fish. 

The  small  green  heron  and  the  bittern  are  also  in  the 
list  of  fish-destroyers,  but  they  are  less  destructive  than 
the  night-heron  on  account  of  their  smaller  size,  but 
their  presence  about  fish  preserves  is  not  at  all  bene- 
ficial and  they  should  be  killed. 

Kingfisher. 

The  kingfisher  is  one  of  the  most  active,  impudent, 
and  persistent  of  the  enemies  of  fish  wherever  found, 
and  it  is  only  too  abundant  for  the  good  of  angling. 
According  to  Dr.  Brehm,  the  common  European  king- 
fisher on  the  average  destroys  daily  ten  or  twelve  fish, 
each  about  as  long  as  a  man's  finger.  In  fourteen 
years  a  German  fish-culturist  caught  upwards  of  700 
kingfishers  near  his  trout-ponds.  The  bird  is  equally 
abundant  and  quite  as  destructive  in  New  York,  and 
may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  pests  afflicting  the  fish- 
culturists. 

I  have  known  of  upward  of  180  kingfishers  being 
132 


ENEMIES     OF     BROOK     TROUT 

destroyed  on  one-half  mile  of  Caledonia  Spring  Creek 
in  one  season ;  they  were  shot  and  trapped. 

In  1884  I  rented  an  old  mill-pond  in  Genesee 
County,  N.  Y.,  posted  it  with  a  view  of  making  a 
trout-preserve,  as  the  pond  was  fed  by  cold  spring 
brooks  and  contained  nothing  but  trout.  I  visited  the 
pond  on  an  average  once  in  two  weeks,  with  a  few 
friends,  for  a  day's  sport.  Noticing  that  the  kingfish- 
ers were  quite  numerous,  I  suggested  to  the  farmer's 
son,  residing  near  by,  and  who  also  watched  the  ponds 
for  me,  that  if  he  would  trap  and  shoot  the  kingfishers 
I  would  give  him  ten  cents  each.  This  was  followed 
up  until  I  found  it  most  too  expensive,  as  the  young 
man  produced  the  heads  or  bodies  of  from  ten  to  thirty 
kingfishers  every  time  I  visited  the  place. 

The  clattering  notes  of  this  bird  are  heard  from  early 
in  the  spring  until  cold  weather,  and  even  before  the 
spring  season  is  open,  as  if  impatient  for  it  to  come. 
He  is  never  satisfied,  being  on  the  lookout  from  day- 
light until  dark,  and  is  ever  ready  for  a  plunge  in  the 
water  at  sight  of  his  prey.  He  can  take  as  many  fish 
as  the  average  sportsman. 

In  the  article  of  Dr.  Warren  above  referred  to  are 
some  accounts  of  the  destruction  wrought  by  the  belted 
kingfishers.  Mr.  C.  K.  Sober,  of  Lewisburg,  Pa.,  found 
thirteen  small  brook-trout  in  one  of  these  birds  which 
was  shot  on  Baker  Run.  An  acquaintance  of  Dr.  War- 
ren some  years  ago  had  a  large  number  of  goldfish  in 
a  pond.  Two  pairs  of  kingfishers  built  their  nests  in  a 
133 


BROOK     TROUT 

sand-bank  near  the  pond.  In  one  summer  these  birds 
destroyed  nearly  all  the  small-sized  fish  in  the  place. 
Out  of  thirty-eight  of  these  birds  taken  about  streams 
and  mill-ponds,  thirty-six  contained  nothing  but  fish 
remains. 

Kingfishers  can  be  successfully  captured  in  traps 
fastened  at  the  top  of  stakes  driven  in  the  bank  about 
trout-ponds  or  along  trout-streams.  The  stake  or  pole 
should  be  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  long.  If  the  top  of 
the  stake  is  not  sufficiently  large  to  support  the  steel 
trap,  nail  a  small  block  of  wood  on  the  end  of  the  pole. 
The  trap  is  set,  but  not  baited.  When  the  trap  is  set, 
the  little  plate  that  springs  the  trap  when  disturbed  is 
the  highest  point  of  the  trap.  The  trap  must  be  se- 
curely fastened  to  the  stake  by  a  cord,  small  wire,  or 
chain.  The  birds  on  visiting  the  ponds  or  streams  will 
invariably  fly  to  one  of  these  stakes,  light  on  the  high- 
est point  and  be  captured.  I  have  found  a  small, 
round  steel  trap  (one  without  the  shank  or  tail-piece) 
to  be  best  for  this  work.  One  of  these  traps  captured 
twenty-five  kingfishers  at  a  trout-preserve  in  Cattarau- 
gus County,  Of  course,  the  pole  and  trap  should  be 
set  up  near  a  fishing-ground,  where  the  bird  may  think 
it  is  a  splendid  spot  for  observation. 

D^ycks. 

Domestic  ducks  as  well  as  geese  are  great  destroyers 
of  fish,  and  should  never  be  allowed  on  trout-waters. 
I  have  seen  a  tame  duck  capture  and  devour  a  trout 

»34 


ENEMIES     OF      BROOK     TROUT 

seven  inches  long.  They  also  feed  on  the  natural  food 
of  the  fish.  Wild  ducks  of  some  species  are  equally 
troublesome,  and  especially  the  mergansers,  saw-bills, 
sheldrakes  or  fish-ducks. 

The  merganser  is  very  destructive  at  all  times,  but 
particularly  in  winter,  when  most  of  the  streams  and 
lakes  are  frozen  over.  They  often  congregate  on  small 
streams  or  ponds  that  do  not  freeze  on  account  of  their 
uniform  temperature.  These  waters  are  invariably 
trout-waters.  During  severe  winters  this  fish-duck 
sometimes  remains  on  Caledonia  Creek  for  a  month  at 
a  time.  At  such  times  it  is  very  shy,  and  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  get  a  shot  at  them  or  keep  them  away 
from  the  stream.  Trout  spawning-beds  are  also  tempt- 
ing spots  for  the  fish-duck  to  congregate  and  feed.  I 
have  sometimes  found  red-flannel  flags,  placed  on  poles 
stuck  in  the  bank  along  the  stream,  useful  for  scaring 
the  ducks  away. 

Loons. 

Dr.  Warren  examined  the  stomachs  of  sixteen 
loons,  three  of  which  were  the  red-throated  species, 
and  found  remains  of  fish  in  thirteen.  Fall-fish,  suck- 
ers, carp,  catfish,  and  also  a  brook-trout  seven  inches 
long  were  found  in  the  stomachs  of  loons  killed  in 
Pennsylvania. 

On  the  inland  lakes  of  New  York  these  birds  sub- 
sist chiefly  upon  fish  and  destroy  a  great  many.  In  the 
counties  of  Chester,  Delaware,  Clinton,  and  Lehigh,  Pa., 


BROOK     TROUT 


the  stomach  contents  of  seven  loons  captured  during 
the  winter  months  consisted  entirely  of  fish-bones  and 
scales. 

Loons  are  sometimes  caught  alive  in  pound-nets  set 
by  the  fishermen  of  the  great  lakes  and  on  the  sea- 
coast.  They  are  very  dangerous  to  handle,  on  account 
of"  the  strength  and  sharpness  of  their  bill  and  their 
savage  disposition. 

Grebes. 

The  grebe,  known  also  as  hell-divers  and  water- 
witches,  feed  upon  fish,  frogs,  aquatic  insects,  especially 
beetles,  and  water-plants.  They  nest  in  streams,  lakes, 
and  ponds,  usually  building  among  reeds  or  rushes, 
and  lay  from  six  to  eight  eggs  of  uniform  color.  They 
are  distributed  all  over  the  world,  and  are  everywhere 
known  as  expert  divers  and  swimmers  and  generally 
destructive  to  fish. 

The  horned  or  crested  grebe  lives  principally  upon 
small  fish.  These  birds  are  so  exceedingly  cautious 
and  swift  in  their  movements  that  it  is  quite  difficult  to 
shoot  them,  but  by  persistent  watching  it  can  be  accom- 
plished, as  many  duck-shooters  know.  One  of  the  best 
ways  to  reduce  their  number  is  by  taking  their  eggs 
from  the  rudely  constructed  nests  in  the  reeds  and 
thickets  close  to  the  surface  of  the  water.  The  eggs  of 
the  horned  grebe  are  greenish. 


136 


ENEMIES     OF     BROOK     TROUT 


Fish-hazvk. 

The  depredations  of  the  fish-hawk  are  more  frequent 
along  the  sea-coast  than  on  inland  waters,  but  the  birds 
are  often  found  along  our  large  rivers  and  over  large 
lakes  and  ponds.  They  are  usually  solitary  in  spring 
and  fall,  but  sometimes  hunt  in  pairs,  and  will  remain 
about  mill-dams  and  fish-ponds  a  few  days  at  a  time  if 
not  driven  away. 

I  have  known  of  their  taking  trout  of  one-half  pound 
weight  from  my  private  trout-ponds. 

Dr.  Warren  examined  the  stomachs  of  twenty-three 
and  found  nothing  in  them  but  fish  remains.  Fish- 
hawks  are  quite  common  throughout  the  Adirondack 
region.  Goldfish-ponds  are  particularly  liable  to  attack 
from  fish-hawks,  owing  to  the  bright  color  of  their  oc- 
cupants. 

Bald  Eagle. 

The  national  bird  usually  plays  the  role  of  a  fish- 
thief,  his  victim  being  the  fish-hawk,  but  occasionally 
has  been  seen  fishing  in  shallow  parts  of  small  creeks 
on  his  own  account. 

Audubon  states  that  he  saw  a  bald  eagle  capture  a 
number  of  red  fins  in  Perkiomen  Creek,  Pa.,  by  wading 
briskly  through  the  water  and  striking  at  them  with 
his  bill.  On  the  Island  of  Kadiak,  Alaska,  according 
to  Dr.  Bean,  this  eagle  is  actively  engaged  in  fishing, 
137 


BROOK     TROUT 

and   is  most  abundant  around   the  salmon-lakes  and 
shallow  bays. 

Many  of  the  observing  guides  of  the  Adirondacks 
will  tell  you  how  they  have  seen  a  bald  eagle  attack  a 
fish-hawk  in  the  air,  and  make  him  drop  the  fish  he 
had  just  captured  from  the  lake  below,  and  before  the 
fish  could  strike  the  water  the  eagle  would  swoop  down 
and  catch  it  in  his  claws ;  but  the  eagle  is  so  very 
scarce  in  New  York  that  it  hardly  seems  right  to 
recommend  their  destruction,  even  if  the  law  would 
permit  it,  which  it  does  not. 

Barred  Owl. 

Although  this  bird  is  commonly  credited  with  the 
destruction  of  fish-food,  such  as  snails,  caddis  larvae, 
and  crayfish,  it  has  sometimes  been  accused  of  catch- 
ing fish.  An  instance  of  the  capture  of  a  large  brook 
trout  at  the  State  Hatchery  at  AUentown,  Pa.,  by  a 
barred  oivl  was  reported  several  years  ago,  and  Dr. 
Warren  was  informed  by  residents  of  Florida,  in  1885, 
that  the  bird  frequently  caught  fish  in  that  State,  se- 
curing them  by  dexterous  movement  of  the  foot  while 
sitting  close  to  the  water's  edge. 

The  common  hoot-owl,  or  screech-owl,  quite  often 
causes  trouble.  I  have  caught  them  in  traps  set  for 
musk-rats  four  inches  under  water.  They  were  after 
the  fish-food  of  the  stream,  such  as  caddis  larvj£,  cray- 
fish, shrimp,  etc.  I  have  seen  two  or  three  quarts  of 
the  caddis-larvifi  cases  in  a  pile  that  had  been  collected 
138 


ENEMIES     OF     BROOK     TROUT 

from    the    water  by  a  screech-owl,  the    larvue    being 
pulled  trom  the  case  and  devoured  by  the  owl. 

Injurious  Insects. 

The  damage  to  fish-eggs  and  young  fish  caused  by 
insects  and  the  larvjE  which  pass  a  portion  of  their  ex- 
istence in  water,  is  less  noticeable  than  the  injury  done 
by  the  birds,  but  it  is  much  greater  than  one  would 
suppose  without  investigation. 

The  larvjfi  of  the  dragon-flies,  and  the  great  water- 
beetles  and  water-bugs  are  well-known  enemies  of  fish. 

Several  kinds  of  water-beetles,  particularly  the  rapa- 
cious dytiscus,  devour  fry  in  enormous  numbers,  and 
the  great  water-bug,  called  helostoma  by  entomologists, 
is  also  injurious  in  trout-waters.  Both  the  beetles  and 
their  larvae  completely  devour  eggs  and  little  fish 
measuring  several  inches  in  length,  while  they  often 
eat  holes  into  larger  fish.  This  large  water-beetle 
often  leaves  the  water,  perhaps  for  a  little  exercise. 
Whether  they  fly  during  daylight  I  cannot  say,  but  I 
have  seen  and  secured  them  near  an  electric  light  lo- 
cated within  a  short  distance  of  a  stream. 

We  do  not  see  and  therefore  do  not  know  the  full 
extent  of  the  depredations  continually  going  on  around 
us,  but  when  we  stop  to  realize  the  fruits  of  our  labor 
and  patient  expectation,  we  are  astonished  by  the 
scarcity  of  fish  and  often  inclined  to  place  the  blame 
where  it  does  not  belong.  Nature's  checks  upon  over- 
production  are  sometimes  more  effective  than  man's 

^39 


ROOK     TROUT 


most  ingenious  devices  tor  the  legitimate  capture  or 
legal  destruction  of  fish,  but  at  the  present  state  of  the 
fishing  waters  in  New  York,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  we 
could  get  along  without  Nature's  checks. 


J 


140 


TROUT    PROPAGATION. 


TROUT    PROPAGATION. 


THE  artificial  propagation  of  fishes,  that  is, 
taking  the  eggs,  impregnating  and  hatch- 
ing them  by  hand,  is  reduced  practically 
to  an  exact  science,  so  far  as  the  eggs  of 
most  food-fishes  are  concerned;  and  after  that  the 
rearing  of  fry  to  yearlings  or  older  in  the  hatcheries 
is  chiefly  a  matter  of  cost  of  food,  water  supply,  and 
care  of  the  young  fish  by  skilled  men.  Most  fish,  too, 
of  all  ages  are  now  transported  without  loss  worth 
mentioning,  so  the  work  of  actual  hatching,  rearing, 
transporting,  and  planting  food-fishes  can  be  planned 
in  advance  and  carried  out  as  successfully  as  the  rear- 
ing of  warm-blooded  animals.  Beyond  the  point  of 
planting  strong  young  fish  in  wild  waters,  the  work 
may  be  a  success  or  failure,  depending  upon  the  condi- 
tions existing  in  the  water  itself  It  may  not  be  an 
entire  success  nor  an  abject  failure,  but  the  fish-breeder 
cannot  always  foresee  which    it  will   be  with   the  cer- 

1-43 


BROOK     TROUT 


tainty  that  he  can  foretell  the  results  in  his  hatchery. 
Wild  waters  are  always  presenting  problems  to  be 
worked  out,  to  insure  the  success  of  fish  propagation 
in  them,  because  the  conditions  are  not  always  constant 
in  any  particular  water,  and  conditions  change  with 
different  waters.  In  planting  fish  in  a  territory  so  ex- 
tensive as  is  comprised  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  it  is  a  most  difficult  matter  to  de- 
termine in  advance  what  conditions  exist  in  all  waters 
that  the  State  is  called  upon  to  stock. 

Streams  that  were  once  natural  trout-streams  may 
have  become  unfit  for  trout,  through  lack  of  shade  and 
the  drying  up  of  the  fountain-head  during  a  part  of 
the  season,  caused  by  lumbering  operations.  A  stream 
well  shaded  by  forest  growth  may  provide  water  of  a 
temperature  for  trout,  and  when  the  axe  has  opened 
the  stream  to  the  sun,  the  temperature  of  the  water 
may  rise  to  such  a  degree  that  trout  cannot  live  in  it. 
Not  one  applicant  in  fifty  who  asks  for  trout-fry  gives 
the  temperature  of  the  water  to  be  planted  with  any 
positiveness.  A  stream  that  is  a  roaring  torrent  in  the 
spring  during  the  melting  of  the  snows,  and  is  after- 
ward a  mere  thread  of  warm  water,  is  not  a  proper 
stream  for  trout  of  any  kind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I 
have  seen  a  brook  absolutely  dry  in  the  month  of  Au- 
gust that  was  planted  with  trout  the  preceding  May, 
and  probably  it  was  planted  in  good  faith  by  the  per- 
son who  applied  for  and  obtained  the  trout  from  the 
State. 


I 


The  end  of  a  stiff  fight.' 


TROUT     PROl'AGATION 

The  State  hatches  a  greater  number  of  fish  each  suc- 
ceeding year,  but  the  appHcations  for  fish  more  than 
keep  pace  with  the  increase,  and  the  applications  have 
to  be  sifted  and  examined  carefully  that  the  best  results 
mav  be  obtained  by  the  Commission  in  planting  fish 
only  in  suitable  waters,  judging  from  the  information 
furnished.  If  this  information  is  defective  or  unrelia- 
ble or  the  exact  condition  existing  unknown,  the  result 
of  fish-planting  may  be  disappointing. 

To  show  what  may  be  done  in  the  way  of  stocking 
a  pond  intelligently  with  trout-fry,  Mr.  W.  C.  With- 
erbee,  of  Port  Henry,  obtained  5,000  brook-trout  fry 
from  the  State  and  planted  them  in  a  small  pond  in 
Essex  County.  The  pond  had  once  contained  trout, 
but  was  so  thoroughly  fished  out  that  no  one  thought 
of  fishing  it  at  the  time.  It  contained  an  abundance 
of  fish-food,  with  a  fine  inlet  stream,  spring-fed,  and  an 
ample  supply  of  water.  In  fact,  all  the  conditions 
were  favorable,  as  the  result  shows.  The  fry  were 
planted  and  allowed  to  grow  for  several  years,  and  the 
pond  was  not  fished,  for  there  was  no  boat  on  it  and  it 
was  not  generally  known  that  it  was  restocked.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Witherbee,  concluding  that  the  pond  had  had 
time  to  recuperate,  went  there  for  a  day's  fishing  and 
caught  five  trout,  the  weights  being  four  and  one-half, 
four,  four,  four,  and  three  and  three-quarter  pounds 
respectively,  or  a  total  for  the  five  trout  of  twenty  and 
one-quarter  pounds.  The  pond  was,  of  course,  public 
water,  and  at  once  it  was  fished  without  ceasing.  One 
145 


BROOK     TROUT 

trout  of  over  eleven  pounds  was  taken  from  it,  taken, 
too,  without  regard  to  the  ethics  ot  fair  anghng;  and 
it  is  more  than  suspected  that  even  a  larger  trout  was 
taken  from  the  inlet  stream  at  the  spawning  season,  a 
trout  of  thirteen  pounds  and  three  ounces.  Here  are 
other  conditions  to  be  considered.  After  a  pond  is 
stocked  with  fish,  and  well  stocked,  water,  food,  and 
temperature  all  being  suitable,  what  rules  can  be  en- 
forced to  insure  that  the  pond  will  be  fished  with  mod- 
eration in  season  and  not  at  all  out  ot  season '?  But 
that  is  a  matter  for  the  lawmakers,  game-protectors, 
and  the  consciences  of  the  anglers,  rather  than  for  the 
fish-breeder;  therefore,  let  us  consider  a  little  further 
the  question  of  temperature  of  water  suitable  for  trout. 
Waters  that  already  contain  trout  that  do  well  in  them 
can  be  planted,  as  the  fact  that  trout  thrive  in  them  is 
-prima  facie  evidence  that  the  waters  are  suitable  for  the 
fish.  In  extending  the  range  ot  trout,  or  in  planting 
streams  that  have  been  fished  out,  and  in  which  the 
conditions  may  have  changed,  it  is  safe  to  plant  in  wa- 
ters that  never  exceed  a  summer  temperature  of  70°  F. 
Rainbow  and  brown  trout  still  thrive  in  waters  of 
higher  temperature  than  are  suitable  for  brook  trout, 
and  brook  trout  will  live  in  well  aerated  water  above 
70°;  at  the  same  time  water  of  70.5°  has  killed  both 
brook  and  brown  trout,  probably  because  it  lacked 
vigor,  which  comes  from  force  and  aeration.  Trout 
grow  little,  if  any,  when  in  water  below  40°,  and  to  be 
at  their  best  they  must  have,  during  a  portion  of  the 
146 


TROUT      PROPAGATION 

year,  water  that  ranges  from  62°  to  70°,  as  this  temper- 
ature hatches  the  insect  life,  which  constitutes  a  hirge 
part  of  the  food  of  trout.  While  food  is  all-important, 
trout  must  have  room  also,  in  which  to  grow.  It  is 
selt-evident  that  if  trout  are  planted  in  numbers  to  ex- 
haust the  food  supply,  they  will  not  thrive;  but  aside 
from  that  trout  must  have  space  to  be  at  their  best,  for 
it  has  been  demonstrated  that  a  given  number  of  trout 
in  a  certain  number  of  cubic  feet  of  water  will  do  bet- 
ter than  the  same  number  of  trout  in  half  the  quantity 
of  water,  both  lots  of  trout  being  fed  the  same  amount 
of  food. 

How  far  trout  may  be  acclimated  to  water  of  higher 
temperature  than  that  to  which  they  are  ordinarily  ac- 
customed has  not  yet  been  fully  demonstrated.  In 
South  Africa  the  brown  trout  has  been  hatched  in 
water  as  high  as  79°,  and  in  this  country  the  rainbow 
have  been  found  to  thrive  in  swift,  well-aerated  streams 
that  reach  85°  F.  The  experiments  of  Dr.  Davy 
("  Physiological  Researches ")  to  determine  the  tem- 
perature fatal  to  trout  are  of  interest,  and  aside  from 
the  question  of  temperature,  as  they  show  how  trout 
try  to  escape  when  the  water  becomes  too  warm.  He 
placed  a  common  European  trout  (fario),  or  brown 
trout  of  this  State,  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  pound 
weight,  into  a  good  volume  of  water  at  62°,  which  was 
pretty  rapidly  raised  to  75°  by  additions  of  warm  water, 
when  it  became  very  active  and  tried  to  leap  out.  In 
an  hour  the  water  was  increased  to  80°,  and  after  a  few 
147 


BROOK     TROUT 

minutes  more  to  85°,  when  it  became  convulsed,  and, 
although  transferred  to  cool  water,  died.  When  the 
water  had  sunk  to  70°  a  smaller  trout  and  a  minnow 
were  put  in,  and  although  the  next  morning  the  tem- 
perature had  sunk  to  67°,  the  trout  was  dead,  but 
the  minnow  had  not  suffered.  A  par  of  the  salmon, 
about  four  inches  long,  was  similarly  treated,  the  wa- 
ter in  half  an  hour  being  raised  from  60°  to  70°,  and 
now  it  tried  to  escape.  The  water  was  raised  to  80° 
and  it  became  torpid  and  convulsed  ;  at  84°  it  seemed 
to  have  died.  A  char  of  about  the  same  size  had  the 
water  gradually  raised  to  80°,  when  it  appears  to  have 
succumbed.  The  trout  tried  to  escape  by  leaping 
out  of  the  water,  while  the  char  kept  to  the  bottom 
with  its  head  downward,  as  if  seeking  for  a  cooler 
locality. 

The  common  brook  trout  of  this  country  (fontinalis) 
is  a  char,  and  undoubtedly  acts  as  did  the  European 
char  in  the  experiment,  by  seeking  cooler  water  down- 
ward in  a  pond  when  the  surface  water  becomes 
warm,  and  searching  out  spring-holes  in  streams,  so 
they  may  be  left  to  their  own  devices  to  find  the  cold- 
est water  provided  in  any  stream  or  pond  in  which 
they  are  planted;  but  unless  the  stream  or  pond  con- 
tains the  cool  water  for  them  to  find—/,  c,  below  70°, 
and  65°  would  be  better — it  is  useless  to  attempt  to 
propagate  brook  trout  in  it.  There  are  other  condi- 
tions which  operate  against  the  maintenance  of  trout 
in  a  stream.  The  fish  must  have  gravel  in  which  to 
148 


TROUT     PROPAGATION 

make  their  spawning-beds.  Even  with  gravel  but  a 
small  percentage  of  eggs  deposited  naturally  are 
hatched,  but  if  deposited  in  the  soft  bottom  they  may 
be  lost  entirely.  During  the  past  season  I  examined  a 
trout-pond  at  the  request  of  a  committee  of  gentlemen 
who  had  stocked  it,  and  found  there  was  very  little 
gravel  where  springs  boil  from  the  bottom,  and  trout 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  spawning,  and  that  little  had 
been  covered  by  vegetable  growth.  I  suggested  that 
spawning-beds  be  provided  by  hauling  gravel  on  the 
ice  in  winter,  spreading  it  over  the  places  where  the 
springs  came  from  the  bottom,  and  when  the  ice 
melted  the  gravel  would  settle  evenly  over  the  vegeta- 
ble growth  and  provide  the  only  thing  which  appeared 
to  be  needed  to  make  the  pond  suitable  for  the  propa- 
gation of  trout,  for  the  water  was  pure  and  cool,  and 
there  was  an  abundance  of  fish-food.  Streams  that  are 
subject  to  sudden  and  severe  freshets  may  have  not 
only  the  spawning-beds  ripped  up  and  destroyed,  but 
the  food  of  the  fish  may  be  washed  out  of  the  stream 
and  will  need  to  be  replaced  artificially. 

Suckers  are  very  destructive  of  trout-spawn,  but 
after  an  examination  of  several  small  Adirondack  lakes, 
that  are  natural  trout-waters,  but  from  which  the  trout 
have  become  practically  exterminated,  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  bullheads  are  to  be  charged  with  the  de- 
struction, more  than  any  other  one  thing,  men  always 
excepted.  Bullheads  have  not,  perhaps,  the  general 
reputation  for  destroying  trout-spawn  that  the  sucker 
149 


BROOK     TROUT 

enjoys ;   nevertheless,  they  are  one  of  the  most  destruc- 
tive agents  to  be  found  in  the  water  where  trout  exist. 

In  the  lakes  referred  to  I  found  that  the  bullheads 
fairly  swarmed,  to  the  exclusion  ot  all  other  fish,  except 
a  few  big  trout.  They  had  not  only  destroyed  the 
trout-spawn,  but  had  destroyed  all  the  tood  ot  the 
trout,  and  were  themselves  dwarfed  and  starved  until 
they  were  unfit  for  food.  In  other  waters  the  bull- 
heads would  have  sought  tor  food,  and  fishing  would 
have  kept  them  down,  but  men,  as  a  rule,  do  not  go 
into  the  Adirondack  Wilderness  to  catch  bullheads, 
and  consequently  all  the  fishing  had  been  for  trout, 
and  the  bullheads  had  multiplied  unmolested  until  they 
monopolized  the  water  to  the  exclusion  of  everything 
else.  In  one  little  lake  the  bullheads  were  like  a  solid 
carpet  of  fish  suspended  in  the  water  under  the  boat, 
and  with  a  piece  of  meat  tied  to  a  string  about  2,000 
were  caught  in  a  tew  hours,  as  many  as  seven  being 
lifted  into  the  boat  at  one  time.  They  were  from  three 
to  four  inches  long,  and  the  largest  taken  was  five  and 
one-half  inches  long,  too  small  to  pay  for  dressing,  even 
had  they  been  fat,  which  they  were  not. 

On  the  spawning-beds  of  lake  trout  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, bullheads  were  found  so  gorged  with  trout-spawn 
that  they  were  lying  helpless  on  their  sides,  and  one  of 
the  Commissioners  who  witnessed  the  sight  told  me 
that  he  was  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  the  gorging 
would  have  proved  fatal  to  some  of  the  bullheads  if 
the  hatchery  men  had  not  anticipated  the  result. 
150 


Q 


T  R  c:)  L    r      PROPAGATION 

In  waters  that  do  not  contain  brook  trout  the  bull- 
head is  a  most  desirable  food-fish,  and  it  grows  to  good 
size  and  is  always  in  demand.  The  waters  of"  the  State 
furnish  about  200,000  pounds  of  bullheads  annually, 
so  far  as  returns  have  been  obtained,  more  than  of  any 
other  fish  except  the  shad. 

The  bullhead  is  a  prolific  fish  and  broods  its  young, 
and  in  trout-waters  where  it  is  not  sought  as  food  it 
has  only  to  breed  and  multiply,  barring  such  casualties 
as  all  fish  are  subject  to  in  a  state  of  nature. 

In  trout-waters  such  as  I  have  mentioned,  where 
bullheads  have  driven  the  trout  to  the  wall,  if  fisher- 
men would  devote  a  little  time  to  catching  bullheads 
there  would  be  fewer  to  devour  the  spawn  of  trout  and 
consume  their  food.  There  is  another  remedy  for  this 
condition  of  things,  but  it  is  one  that  can  be  applied 
only  by  the  Fisheries,  Game,  and  Forest  Commission 
or  its  agents. 

Every  little  while  it  is  discovered  by  someone  that 
trout  contain  ova  in  the  summer,  and  there  is  a  de- 
mand that  the  closed  season  be  shortened.  The  last 
complaint  of  this  sort  that  I  have  noticed  was  printed 
in  a  paper  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State.  The 
writer  of  the  complaint  found  ripe  eggs  in  some  trout 
he  caught  in  August,  and  he  desired  that  the  law 
should  close  the  fishing  on  and  after  August  1st.  This 
gentleman  simply  made  the  mistake  that  others  have 
made,  for  the  eggs  were  not  ripe.  If  he  had  examined 
trout  in  June  or  before,  he  would  have  found  spawn 


BROOK     TROUT 

in  the  females,  but  it  would  have  been  undeveloped 
ova,  the  same  as  he  found  in  August,  except  that  the 
latter  was  further  advanced.  In  this  State  brook  trout 
spawn  in  October,  with  some  variation,  depending  upon 
the  water,  for  the  colder  the  water  the  earlier  they  will 
spawn. 

At  the  Adirondack  hatching-station  of  this  Commis- 
sion, in  Franklin  County,  they  begin  to  spawn  about 
October  1st;  at  the  Caledonia  station,  in  Livingston 
County,  they  begin  to  spawn  about  October  i  5th,  and 
eggs  are  taken  as  late  as  the  following  March,  and 
have  been  taken  as  late  as  April  19th  ;  at  Cold  Har- 
bor station,  on  Long  Island,  they  begin  to  spawn  the 
last  of  October,  but  the  height  of  the  season  is  from 
November  10th  to  30th,  although  a  few  fish  come  on 
in  December  and  as  late  as  January. 

In  running  streams  the  temperature  of  the  water 
would  follow  closely  the  temperature  of  the  air,  and 
the  spawning  would  be  early  if  the  season  were  cold, 
except  in  streams  that  were  largely  spring-fed,  in  which 
case  the  temperature  of  the  water  would  not  fall  so 
rapidly  and  the  spawning  would  be  prolonged. 

Trout  spawn  when  they  are  "  yearlings,"  but  a  year- 
ling is  more  than  twelve  months  old.  All  brook-trout 
eggs  are  hatched  in  the  spring,  and  the  period  of  incu- 
bation varies  with  the  temperature  of  the  water.  The 
eggs  taken  the  first  of  October  in  Northern  New  York 
may  be  150  days  hatching,  while  the  eggs  taken  on 
Long  Island   the  last  of  November  will  be  only  about 


TROUT     PROPAGATION 

sixty  days  in  hatching.  Say  that  trout  are  hatched  on 
Long  Island  in  March,  during  the  following  summer 
they  will  be  fry,  and  in  the  fall  they  will  be  fingerlings, 
seven  or  eight  months  old.  The  next  season  they  will 
be  yearlings,  and  as  they  spawn  in  the  fall  of  the  sec- 
ond season,  they  will  actually  be  twenty  months  old  at 
spawning  time,  although  from  custom  they  are  called 
yearlings.  Consequently,  a  yearling  brook  trout  at 
spawning  time  is  from  eighteen  to  twenty  months  of 
age,  dating  from  the  time  it  left  the  egg.  A  yearling 
trout  may  yield  from  fifty  to  250  eggs,  the  eggs  being 
one-sixth  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  quite  different  from 
the  mustard-seed  eggs  which  the  fisherman  found  in 
the  fish  he  caught  during  the  summer  months  of  the 
open  season.  A  trout  but  four  inches  long  has  been 
known  to  yield  forty  ripe  eggs.  Many  yearling  trout 
in  wild  waters  are  not  six  inches  long,  and  where  the 
six-inch  trout  law  is  observed  numbers  of  trout  will 
spawn  before  they  can  be  legally  killed.  If  there 
were  no  six-inch  trout  law,  it  would  be  possible  to  kill 
the  trout  before  they  spawned  once,  and  the  stock 
would  have  to  depend  almost  entirely  upon  artificial 
propagation,  with  but  slight  aid  from  natural  processes. 
A  "  yearling  "  trout  in  one  of  the  State  rearing-ponds 
is  quite  a  different  fish  from  a  wild  trout  of  the  same 
age,  for  the  State  rears  yearlings  (seventeen  months 
from  the  egg)  that  are  ten  and  one-half  inches  long. 
Two-year-old  trout  may  yield  as  many  as  500  eggs, 
and  older  fish  as  many  as  1,500. 
153 


BROOK     TROUT 


To  maintain  fair  fishing,  even  in  a  trout-streann,  such 
work  as  the  State  may  be  able  to  do  in  the  way  of 


phmting   the    water 


should  be  supple- 
mented by  all  the 
fish  that  may  come 
from  natural  repro- 
duction, and  the 
trout  should  have 
every  possible  op- 
portunity to  spawn 
unmolested. 


C 


154 


SOME  NOTES  ON  COOKING 
BROOK   TROUT. 


SOME   NOTES   ON 
COOKING  BROOK   TROUT. 


THERE  are  two  ways  to  test  whether  a  fish  is 
fresh  or  stale  ;  first,  if  the  eyes  are  bright  and 
glossy,  it  is  fresh ;  if  sunken,  dull,  and  discol- 
ored, it  is  stale;  second,  if  the  finger  be 
pressed  on  the  fleshy  part  and  it  is  solid  and  elastic,  it  is 
fresh ;  if  the  pressure  leaves  a  mark,  it  is  stale.  This 
applies  to  salt  as  well  as  fresh  water  fish.  It  has  been 
said  that  a  trout  is  not  fit  to  eat  twenty-four  hours  after 
being  landed;  in  that  short  time  the  flesh  not  only 
loses  color,  but  solidity.  No  fresh-water  fish  so  quickly 
changes.  Five  minutes  after  death  we  notice  the  rich, 
deep,  lovely  colors  growing  paler  and  duller.  In 
taking  a  brook  trout  from  the  water  it  will  be  seen 
that  a  thick,  slippery,  gelatinous  substance  covers  his 
entire  body,  particularly  the  head,  shoulders,  and  tail. 
When  laid  on  the  river-bank  in  the  sun  for  a  few 


BROOK     TROUT 

minutes,  this  substance  will  cake,  and  if  wet  again 
will  moisten  as  before,  but  in  a  few  hours,  even  if 
it  be  placed  on  ice,  this  jellied  substance  entirely  dis- 
appears, leaving  the  skin  thin,  soft,  and  colorless,  the 
flesh  insipid,  the  delicate  color  gone,  and  it  is  in  this 
condition  that  city  people  have  their  trout  cooked 
and  served.  An  angler  while  feasting  his  happy  and 
fortunate  friends  on  the  trout  he  brings  from  his  favor- 
ite stream,  sits  and  watches  them  enjoy  what  he  will 
not  touch,  for  still  lingering  on  his  palate  is  the  feast 
of  fresh-caught  fish  his  guide  prepared  the  day  be- 
fore in  a  clearing  of  the  forest  beside  a  rippling  stream. 
Many  guides  prefer  to  prepare  trout  (up  to  ten 
inches)  without  being  washed,  dexterously  tearing  out 
the  gills,  the  inside  being  drawn  at  the  same  time, 
leaving  the  head,  body,  tail,  and  fins  intact.  For 
larger  trout,  the  gills  should  be  cut  from  the  lower 
jaw  and  back  of  head,  a  slit  made  from  the  head 
along  the  lower  body  to  the  fin.  On  the  gills  being 
pulled  it  will  draw  the  inside  away.  If  done  with  care, 
a  perfectly  clean  inside  is  the  result.  In  all  fresh  fish 
the  blood  is  encased  in  a  thin  skin  close  to  the  back- 
bone, and  ought  to  be  pulled  entire.  A  fish  so  treated 
can  be  prepared  without  the  use  of  water.  The  case 
is  different  if  the  trout  have  been  carried  some  dis- 
tance, the  creel  at  intervals  laid  down  on  a  sandy  beach 
or  covered  with  grass  or  ferns  and  little  pine  leaves, 
from  the  bed  of  the  basket.  After  being  cleaned  and 
prepared,  they  should  then  be  placed  for  a  few  minutes 
158 


NOTES  ON  COOKING  BROOK  TROUT 

in  clear  cool  water  ready  for  the  pan  or  broiler.  An- 
glers should  be  careful  to  thoroughly  clean  the  creel,  re- 
placing new  terns  or  grass  every  day.  It  often  happens, 
after  long  wading,  large  flies  will  creep  in  the  basket, 
and  leave  fly-blows  in  the  mouth  or  gills  of  the  trout. 

Much  depends  on  the  length  of  time  an  angler  wishes 
to  stay  in  the  woods,  and  how  large  his  outfit,  and  also 
the  place  he  chooses  for  his  camp,  the  place  to  build, 
and  method  of  preparing  a  fire.  An  old  hand,  or 
guide,  can  do  much  even  with  the  primitive  two  logs, 
a  large  stone,  with  only  a  small  broiler  and  frying-pan 
without  a  handle.  Taking  for  granted  that  the  trout  are 
prepared  for  cooking  and  all  necessary  utensils  at  hand, 
the  first  requisite  is  a  number  of  square  pieces  of  birch- 
bark  newly  cut.  Lay  the  cleaned  fish  on  the  inside  of 
the  bark,  scattering  some  roasted  bread-crumbs  or  rolled 
toast  mixed  with  sufficient  quantity  of  salt  and  pepper, 
each  from  small  tins  kept  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
crumbs  will  adhere  to  the  fish.  Then  lift  them  by  the 
head  and  tail,  laying  one  by  one  softly  into  the  pan  of 
bubbling  fat,  either  of  salt  pork,  lard,  butter,  or  olive 
oil.  Small  brook  trout  fried  quickly  in  oil,  with  or 
without  crumbs,  is  a  delicate  morsel.  If  crumbs  be 
fine  mixed  with  a  beaten  egg,  the  trout  browns  and  is 
crisp  in  a  few  minutes.  To  test  if  thoroughly  cooked, 
place  a  fork  in  the  flesh.  If  done,  it  will  sink  easily 
to  the  bone.  Nothing  is  more  distasteful  than  under- 
done or  unsalted  fresh  fish.  If  brook  trout  are  fried 
with  a  three-inch  slice  of  good  bacon  to  each  fish, 
159 


ROOK     TROUT 


the  fat  is  absorbed,  and  gives  the  fish  a  very  agreeable 
taste.  When  the  bacon  is  partly  lean,  less  salt  will  be 
required.  But  the  richest  and  most  delicate  dish  is  to 
quickly  and  sharply  fry  the  trout  in  plenty  of  good 
butter,  with  a  bay-leaf  dropped  in  the  pan  while 
cooling.  The  fish  cuts  up  a  golden  orange,  with  a  de- 
cidedly agreeable  taste.  Even  the  smell  creates  a  long- 
ing for  the  dinner-bell  announcing  that  it  is  time  to 
fall  to. 

In  preparing  small  trout  for  broiling,  two  flat  stones 
should  be  placed  to  rest  the  broiler  on,  and  the  coals, 
though  hot,  should  not  blaze.  Skewer  a  piece  of  fat 
pork  or  bacon  on  the  top  of  each  trout,  and  place  them 
on  the  broiler.  The  heat  will  soon  melt  the  fat,  partly 
dripping  in  a  blaze  and  the  rest  soaking  in  the  fish. 
Before  turning,  take  off  the  fat  and  skewer  it  on  the 
other  side  as  before.  This  will  be  done  easier  and 
better  if  the  broiler  is  removed  from  the  fire.  The 
outfit  is  more  complete  when  provided  with  a  bunch 
of  small  toothpicks  to  use  as  skewers  to  hold  the  bacon 
on  and  to  bind  together  the  opening  of  large  fish.  To 
broil  a  large  fish,  it  should  be  cut  open  along  the 
back,  clean  by  the  bone ;  open  carefully  and  remove 
the  inside.  The  backbone  can  be  removed  by  hold- 
ing the  head  and  shaving  the  flesh  away  to  the  tail. 
Make  small  incisions  to  allow  the  heat  to  get  through 
and  melt  the  fat  on  top.  The  entire  fish  is  ready  to 
be  cooked,  the  cut-skin  side  being  cooked  first,  which 
enables    the    fat    to  soak   well    in   the   flesh.     When 

i6o 


"  Ready  for  cooking.'' 


NOTES  ON  COOKING  BROOK  TROUT 

ready  to  turn  over,  lay  a  clean  piece  of  bark  on  the 
top  of  the  fish,  lifting  the  broiler  over,  leaving  the 
fish  on  the  bark,  repeat  the  turn-over  on  another  piece 
of  bark,  and  from  that  bark  to  the  broiler.  By  that 
method  the  fish  is  properly  turned  over  without  break- 
ing. The  double  or  clasp  broiler  is  useless  either  for 
small  or  large  fish,  as  in  turning  over  they  slip  out  on 
the  coals.  To  bake  a  two  or  three  pound  fish,  it  should 
be  cleaned,  and  the  tail  and  fins  cut  off,  the  inside 
stuffed  with  pork  or  butter  and  a  small  raw  onion, 
and  the  skin  carefully  pinned  together  with  small  skew- 
ers. It  is  then  laid  on  a  dish  or  Dutch  oven.  Scatter 
a  little  flour  mixed  with  salt  and  some  pieces  of  ba- 
con arranged  along  the  top  with  half  a  cup  of  water 
to  moisten  the  fish,  which  can  be  basted  after  the  fat 
melts.  In  a  very  hot  fire  it  will  cook  in  forty-five 
minutes. 

Another  method  is  to  bake  the  fish  in  a  hole  two 
feet  deep.  Build  a  good  hot  fire  till  the  charcoal 
ashes  are  red.  Spread  enough  green  grass  or  ferns  on 
the  ashes  and  place  the  fish  thereon.  Then  another 
layer  of  ferns.  Put  on  some  small  dry  sticks  and  let 
it  burn  well  and  build  it  entirely  over  with  small  logs. 
By  the  time  it  is  burned  through  the  fish  will  be 
baked.  This  method  is  not  always  a  success,  unless 
done  by  an  experienced  hand,  there  being  no  chance 
to  test  if  the  cooking  is  complete. 

A  very  primitive  way  to  bake  a  fish  is  to  cover  it 
(undrawn)  with  clay  two  inches  thick ;  place  it  in  the 

i6i 


BROOK     TROUT 

hottest  part  of  the  fire.  The  clay  hardens  almost 
instantly  and  the  fish  in  its  rough  oven  bakes  through, 
retaining  also  its  juices.  The  clay  is  then  poked  out 
of  the  fire,  cooled  with  a  dash  of  water,  and  a  sharp 
stroke  with  a  stick  separates  it  from  the  fish.  The 
skin  peels  off  with  the  clay  and  it  is  ready  for  serving. 
If  clay  is  not  at  hand,  wrap  the  fish  evenly  in  thin 
buttered  tissue-paper  and  bury  this  in  some  wet  brown 
wrapping-paper.  Then  bake  same  as  the  clay.  The 
easiest  and  quickest  way  of  all  to  bake  a  fish  is  to 
split,  cut  off  the  head,  tail,  and  fins,  then  season,  pin  it 
to  a  board  by  wooden  pegs,  and  prop  the  whole  up 
before  a  smart  fire  of  hot  coals. 

To  fillet  a  trout,  use  a  keen,  sharp  knife,  cut  off  the 
head  and  fins,  split  the  back,  shave  clean  along  the 
backbone  to  the  tail,  then  open  the  fish  flat,  and  take 
away  the  inside.  Lift  the  backbone  at  the  shoulders, 
and  shave  the  other  side.  There  remains  two  fillets  of 
boneless  fish.  Wash  in  fresh  water  and  dip  the  fillet 
in  beaten  egg  and  crumbs.  Scatter  a  little  fine- 
chopped  parsley  and  roll  up  in  a  ball.  Then  place  a 
piece  of  butter  on  top,  and  it  is  ready  to  bake  or  fry. 

The  most  sumptuous  dish  for  camp  is  baked,  stuffed 
trout.  This  can  be  accomplished  better  near  a  tarm 
or  store  where  materials  can  be  secured.  Only  a  large 
fish  is  worthy  of  being  cooked  in  this  manner.  Begin 
by  slitting  the  lower  part,  take  out  the  gills  and  inside  ; 
wash  thoroughly;  cut  incisions  two  inches  apart  along 
the  sides,  and  skewer  pieces  of  fat  bacon  in  the  cuts. 
162 


NOTES  ON  COOKING  BROOK  TROUT 

To  prepare  stuffing,  chop  separately  a  piece  of  suet  or 
fat  pork,  some  sprigs  of  green  parsley,  four  small 
onions,  the  yolk  of  a  hard-boiled  egg,  and  a  little 
dried  sage.  Take  three  cups  of  rolled  bread-crumbs, 
add  a  few  cloves,  mix  thoroughly  together,  and  moisten 
with  a  cup  of  white  wine.  Put  the  stuffing  in  lightly 
and  skewer  the  fish  securely.  Place  it  carefully  in  the 
bake-kettle,  pour  in  half  a  pint  of  white  wine  or  hot 
water  to  prevent  the  fish  from  adhering,  lay  on  the  fish 
some  pieces  of  butter,  and  place  the  kettle  in  the  hot- 
test part  of  the  fire.  Baste  at  intervals.  It  should  be 
cooked  in  fifty  minutes. 

To  cook  fish  properly,  as  in  everything  else,  requires 
some  experience  and  practice,  and  a  novice  should 
only  attempt  the  simpler  methods.  More  attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  proper  preparation  and  cleaning 
of  fish.  A  work  on  camp-cooking  says :  "  It  is  sup- 
posed that  everybody  has  known  how  to  clean  fish  ever 
since  he  was  a  school-boy."  A  greater  mistake  was 
never  made.  Few  men  understand  properly  how  to 
clean  and  cut  up  fish  ;  fewer  still  know  how  to  cut  fish 
served  to  eat  when  cooked.  A  small  fish  should  be 
slit  down  the  back,  the  flesh  stripped  off  in  one  piece 
from  the  side.  With  the  left  hand,  take  the  head,  lift 
it  slowly  (a  fork  holding  down  the  other  half),  and  it 
will  pull  along  with  the  backbone  the  ribs  from  the 
flesh,  leaving  practically  two  filleted  and  boneless 
pieces  ready  to  be  eaten.  To  carve  or  cut  a  large  fish, 
it  should  be  first  slit  down  the  back,  then  cut  crosswise 
163 


BROOK     TROUT 

every  two  inches,  and  taken  away  from  the  backbone 
in  pieces.  When  the  first  half  is  cut  away,  disjoint 
and  lay  aside  the  backbone,  leaving  the  head  and  tail, 
cutting  the  lower  halt"  as  before.  Use  a  keen,  sharp 
knife  for  cleaning;  a  dull,  broad  fish-knife  for  cutting 
when  cooked.  Many  guides  use  their  jack-knives  and 
are  always  slovenly.  In  preparation  for  meals,  even 
in  camp  with  few  utensils,  it  is  possible  to  prepare 
dainty  dishes  in  a  dainty  way.  This  can  be  proved 
whenever  a  capable  housewife  camps  and  directs  the 
cooking;  the  results  are  entirely  different.  In  a  thou- 
sand ways,  everything  seems  to  be  more  agreeable  to 
a  dainty  palate.  Rough-and-ready  methods  become 
habit  through  constant  use  of  trying  to  escape  extra 
trouble.  Camp-cooking  can  be  just  as  enjoyable  in 
the  preparation  as  the  joys  of  angling.  Hurry,  impa- 
tience, and  loss  of  good  temper  take  away  much  from 
the  keen  delight  and  pleasure  of  camp-life. 


164 


ALONG   A   TROUT-STREAM. 


I 


ALONG   A   TROUT-STREAM. 


"  //  i's  a  spot  beyond  imagination 
Delightful  to  the  heart — where  roses  bloom 
And  sparkling  fountains  fmirmiir  ;  where  the  earth 
Is  gay  with  many-colored  flowers!' — Firdausi. 

jA  N  ill  man   is  walking  down  Broadway  to  his 

/^      office.     Overworked  for  months,  he  shrinks 

/      ^    from  the   hard,  practical  duties  of  rushing 

modern  business.     The  half-grown  foliage  of 

late  May  is  on  the  trees  in  Bowling  Green  and  Battery 

Park.     Robins  are  calling  to  each  other  there.     He 

167 


BROOK     TROUT 

joys  in  the  fresh  wind,  and  the  gulls  soaring  above 
North  River  I 

How  green  the  grass  is !  And  there,  peeping 
through,  he  sees  several  wild  violets,  blue  as  the  sky 
at  which  they  gaze.  Presto  I  the  jaded  and  listless 
look  is  gone  from  the  man's  face ;  his  heart  leaps  and 
hope  comes  strong  and  welcome ;  for  before  him, 
summoned  by  memory,  are  the  violets  and  the  vistas, 
the  thorn-blossoms,  robins,  pheasants,  arbutus,  and  lil- 
ies along  the  chattering  flow  of  his  favorite  trout- 
stream  I 

Trinity  bells  are  pealing  "  Rock  of  Ages  "  ;  but  the 
echoes  of  those  peals  sing  another  song  to  him  in  his 
need  of  rest.  It  is  :  "  Only  two  weeks  more  I  I'hen  you 
shall  be  fish/ ng  for  trout  on  the  little  Slagle  River  !  " 

How  slowly  the  fortnight  drags  by  I  But  a  morning 
comes  when,  before  three  o'clock,  he  is  actually  wading 
that  stream.  At  last  !  Since  midnight  all  the  jewels 
of  the  skies  of  June  have  been  shining  keenly.  It  is 
wild,  remote,  with  even  the  camp  a  mile  away.  He  is 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Lower  Glen.  Over  the  high 
banks  are  thickets  of  thorn-bushes,  their  wealth  of 
snow-white  blossoms  filled  with  dewdrops  which  have 
caught  and  hold  the  starlight ! 

Through  that  sweetest  of  all  earthly  things,  wild- 
flower  air,  comes  the  far  hooting  of  owls  in  lonely 
nocturne.  There  are  whiffs  of  mint  scents,  faint  smells 
of  fragrant  birch  and  pine-balsam.  The  slight  stir  of 
a  sleepy  breeze  wakes  a  low  whisper  in  some  of  the 

i68 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

tree-tops,  while  the  stream  sings  to  the  sleeping  forest, 

with 

"  the  still  sound 

Of  falling  waters — lulling  as  the  song 
Of  Indian  bees  at  sunset^  when  they  throng 
Around  the  fragrant  Nilica^  and  deep 
In  its  blue  blossoms,  hum  themselves  to  sleeps 

"  In  the  night  the  great  old  troutes  bite  very 
boldly,"  said  Isaak  Walton  :  so  the  angler  is  wading 
the  stream  at  what  the  roused  camp-cook  has  called  an 
"  unearthly "  hour.  Far  better,  he  is  here  to  drink  in 
the  beauty  of  the  sylvan  environment  as  the  mystic 
hour  runs  from  gold  of  stars  to  gold  of  sunshine. 

The  stream  is  wide  enough  for  casting  flies  v/ithout 
trouble  from  the  white  thorn-bushes.  Fifty  teet  below 
him  is  a  deep  pool,  just  beyond  the  wraith  of  foam  at 
the  foot  of  short  rapids.  Gloom  and  mystery  lie  over 
and  in  it ;  he  can  see  the  white  of  foam  slowly  eddy- 
ing over  its  black  water  under  two  leaning  pines.  He 
moves  slowly,  then  pauses  with  rubber-clad  feet  on  the 
white  and  golden  gravel,  covered  with  two  feet  of 
rushing  water. 

Poising  the  pliable  lancewood  rod,  while  the  left 
hand  pulls  the  line  from  the  reel  in  unison  at  each  pass 
of  the  rod  back  and  forth  above  him,  he  extends  the 
line  with  its  leader  and  flies  until  forty  feet  of  line  are 
in  motion.  Then,  true  as  bow  from  arrow,  light  as 
down,  fluttering  as  if  alive,  the  White  Miller  lures 
169 


BROOK     TROUT 

go  Straight  to  the  centre  ot'  the  pool,  and  kiss  the 
water. 

A  flash,  gleam,  flying  spray  as  a  large  trout  darts 
from  his  home  under  the  bank  I  It  is  an  experience 
that  has  often  thrilled  the  real  angler.  The  fish  has 
jumped  at  and  missed  the  leading  fly  I 

But  the  next  cast  is  successful.  An  even  fiercer 
rush,  and  the  angler,  with  the  well-known  turn  of  the 
wrist  on  the  rod,  has  the  fish  hooked  I  Straight  down 
stream  flies  the  quarry,  the  reel  screaming  and  the 
heart  of  the  angler  beating  hard  and  fast  1  A  long 
struggle  follows.  Almost  in  the  landing-net  twice,  and 
yet  the  trout  makes  savage  rushes  for  liberty  I  Soon 
the  prize  is  secured ;  joy  of  possession  as  a  wild, 
twelve-inch  king  of  the  jewelled  coat  lies  on  the  bed  of 
fern-leaves  in  the  bottom  of  the  trout-creel  I  For  this, 
and  for  the  gladness  of  returning  health  among  some 
of  earth's  fairest  scenes,  the  angler  has  journeyed  almost 
1,000  miles.  Already  he  is  mastered  by  the  spell  of 
the  remote,  wild  life,  with  its  mystery  and  music. 

Three  beautiful  trout  are  taken  from  the  pool  while 
the  starlight  dies  and  the  sky  grows  lighter.  Then, 
startling  the  ear  of  earliest  dawn,  a  solitary  bird  fills 
the  forest  with  its  first  note,  clear,  pure,  and  thrilling, 
as  if  Heaven  itself  had  sent  its  own  winged  messenger 
to  herald  the  coming  day !  Then  another  bird  takes  up 
the  song ;  then  another  and  another,  until  all  the  woods 
are  vocal  with  melody — now  near  and  joyous,  now  far 
and  sweet,  like  "the  horns  of  elf-land  faintly  blowing." 


I 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

"■  Skir-reee ! "  cries  a  scared  chipmunk  as  he  darts 
away.  A  gray  squirrel,  with  tail  well  cocked,  barks 
and  scolds  at  a  safe  distance.  From  far  down  the 
stream  comes  the  low  drumming  of  a  partridge. 
Across  the  bend  is  a  sudden  splash,  followed  by  the 
rattling  cry  of  a  kingfisher,  who  has  had  his  first  dive 
of  the  day  for  nothing.  A  screaming  hawk  sails  away 
from  the  dry  tree  that  tops  the  high  bank.  "  Up  all 
night?  "  inquires  a  quail. 

The  hypnotism  and  delight  of  it  to  the  man  escaped 
from  a  busy  city  office  are  beyond  all  expression  in 
words  1     Blessed  hours  of  recreation  ! 

In  the  air  is  the  faint  odor  of  smoke,  and  of  boiling 
coffee.  The  cook  has  gone  farther  down  the  stream 
with  a  heavy  lunch-basket,  has  put  six  big  potatoes 
before  a  kindled  camp-fire  on  the  brookside,  and  then 
has  caught  five  larger  trout  from  a  deeper  pool ;  break- 
fast there  is  nearly  ready.  The  roasted  potatoes  are 
done  to  a  turn — how  well  the  cook  can  prepare  them  I 
And  out  from  the  little  frying-pan  come  the  five  trout, 
swimming  a  half  hour  ago,  and  now  garnished  with 
tender  water-cress  from  that  bank  of  it  close  at  hand. 
Abundant  coffee,  cream,  toast,  butter !  The  breakfast 
is  served  on  two  snowy  napkins  spread  over  a  mossy 
knoll ;  the  dishes  are  pieces  of  freshly  cut  birch  bark, 
the  seat  is  a  birch  log.  Peerless  dining-room — a  June 
sky  curved  in  azure  benediction  above  a  wild  pine- 
forest  filled  with  sough  of  the  wind  through  its  aisles — 
with  bird-notes,  with   the  voice  (so  glad  I)  of  the  soul 


BROOK     TROUT 

of  the  wilderness — the  talking  stream  whose  rapids  re- 
flect the  early  sunlight  down  one  of  the  long  aisles, 
and  cause  it  to  dance  on  the  foliage.  Not  all  the 
chets  and  banquets  in  the  cities  of  the  round  world 
could  produce  such  a  meal  as  this,  with  such  a 
breakfast-chamber ! 

For  the  wealth  of  beauty  is  everywhere.  Laurel 
and  rhododendron  blossoms  are  around  him  —  wild 
lilies,  trailing  arbutus,  and  white  strawberry  blossoms  I 
Finally,  the  forest  rises  above  a  blue  carpet  of  violets. 
How  the  angler  loves  them  I  He  stops  the  cook  from 
plucking  them  for  a  boutonniere.  He  almost  wishes, 
as  he  lies  beside  a  thick  cluster  of  their  blooms,  that 
he  might  strike  hands  and  feet  in  the  kind  earth,  take 
root  himself  beside  his  favorite  flowers,  and  nevermore 
abandon  the  happy  companionship.  The  little,  nod- 
ding, blue  comrades  I  He  feels  that  they  are  sentient — 
know  and  are  grateful  for  his  love  and  insight.  He  is 
charmed  by  their  wild,  shy  life.  As  he  lies  prone  and 
drinks  from  the  spring  below  the  bank,  one  of  them 
takes  advantage  of  a  sudden  gust  of  wind  to  actually 
nod  at  him  several  times  I 

"  //  is  just  a  little  violet  on  the  hank  above  the  spring  ; 

Just  a  little  point  of  blue  that  nods  before  the  saucy  air  : 
And  as  he  notes  the  beauty  of  the  zvee  and  icinsome  thing. 

He  feels  that  it  is  glad  to  see  him  back  and  drinking  there." 

And  now  comes  proof  that  the  angler  sees  and 
knows  the  beauty  of  his  environment.     For  he  is  not 

172 


\ 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

fishing.  He  could  talk  for  hours  of  rods,  lines,  leaders, 
and  reels — of  camping,  guides,  tents,  pack-horses,  ca- 
noes; of  the  various  flies  to  be  used  according  to  sea- 
son, location,  lights,  hours  of  day  or  night,  on  a  dozen 
widely  separated  streams.  He  has  fished  on  the  Peri- 
bonca  in  Quebec,  the  best  salmon-streams  in  New- 
foundland, the  far-famed  Nepigon,  and  the  fierce 
waters  of  a  dozen  rivers  in  British  Columbia  that  are 
guarded  by  black  mountains  whose  bases  were  green 
with  foliage  ;  while  their  peaks,  sometimes  two  miles 
high,  carried  snow-banners  in  every  high  wind.  He 
knows  Pennsylvania's  best  trout-streams ;  and  the  wa- 
ters of  the  Muskoka  Region ;  besides  the  Au  Sable, 
Shuswap,  Two  Medicine  and  St.  Mary's  Lakes  in 
Montana,  and  Square  and  the  Sourdnahonk  Lakes  in 
Maine.  Trout  from  the  Margaree  in  Cape  Breton, 
from  the  Tabusintac  and  Bartibog  Rivers  in  New 
Brunswick,  and  the  Morell  Stream  on  Prince  Edward 
Island,  have  been  brought  to  his  creel  by  hundreds. 
The  best  cruising  for  edible  salt-water  fishes — that 
around  Albemarle  and  Pamlico  Sounds — is  familiar  to 
him.  But  Jiozchere  else  exist  such  wildness,  remote- 
ness, wealth  of  sylvan  enchantment,  such  flavor  to 
trout,  such  health  and  life  in  air  and  water,  such  music 
in  a  stream,  as  along  the  peerless  little  Slagle  River  I 

He  is   realizing  this,  and  is  happy  to   the  point  of 

fear.     He  could  easily  fill  his  creel  with  trout ;  yet  he 

does  not    cast  the   flies.      For  he  is  in  a  hypnotized 

state.     He  will  not  even  light  his  morning  cigar;  its 

173 


BROOK     TROUT 

smoke  would  pollute  the  air  of  a  place  which  has 
"  become  religion."  And  he  would  sooner  take  a  drink 
of  whiskey  before  St.  Peter,  the  ancient  fisherman  who 
now  guards  the  gates  of  Paradise,  than  here,  right  in  a 
Paradise  upon  earth. 

The  rod  is  laid  on  the  half-submerged  log  where  he 
sits,  with  his  rubber-clad  feet  in  the  water.  He  really 
hears  and  sees  I 

What  a  contrast  to  the  scenes  he  beheld  last  sum- 
mer along  Granite  Creek,  which  flows  into  the  head  of 
St.  George's  Pond  in  Newfoundland  !  There,  the  hill- 
sides were  yellow  with  ripe  bake-apple  berries ;  barrens 
were  gray  with  Arctic  moss;  caribou  grazed  in  plain 
sight  on  many  hills.  Moose-birds,  tame  by  reason  of 
their  ignorance  of  human  presence,  roosted  on  the  ends 
of  the  little  logs  on  the  camp-fire  before  the  tripod 
tent.  Marsh-hens  called  and  fluttered ;  and  at  night, 
from  far  above,  could  be  heard  the  quacking  of  ducks 
and  the  thrilling  "  honk  !  honk  !  honk  !  "  of  the  stout- 
hearted old  wild  ganders,  each  winging  his  way 
toward  Labrador  at  the  head  of  invisible  wedges  of 
night-flying  geese.  Great  trout  were  in  the  pools  of 
that  stream ;  and  the  steel-gray  color  of  its  gravelly 
bed  was  very  beautiful.  And  yet,  even  among  such 
scenes,  the  angler  had  longed  for  the  music,  the  flower 
and  bird  life,  foliage  and  mystery  of  the  Slagle  !  Its 
waters  flow  around  his  legs  now  I  And  they  seem  to 
talk  to  him  as  they  rush  : 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

"  Where  have  you  been^  my  drcotee  ? 
IVhy  have  you  roamed  so  far  from  me? 
thrice  -welcome  back  to  my  fair  shore! 
Noiu  learn  to  love  me  more  and  more'' 

He  sees  the  flash  of  the  body  of  a  brook  trout  as  he 
leaps  from  the  brook,  in  pursuit  of  a  butterfly,  wander- 
ing too  near  the  water's  surface  for  safety.  The  line 
and  flies  have  drifted  from  the  log.  Flash  !  a  trout 
strikes  one  of  the  lures,  pulls  the  rod  into  the  stream, 
and  the  owner  scrambles  after  it.  Now  he  is  casting 
again,  and  filling  the  creel.  Nearly  every  effort  brings 
some  response.  In  pools,  behind  rocks,  on  the  ripples, 
here  by  the  bank,  there  beneath  those  logs,  yonder  in 
the  foam  of  the  rapids,  and  in  places  where  least  sus- 
pected, glittering  in  beauty,  crimson-spotted,  always 
ready  for  a  bait,  lurk  and  play  the  wild  brook  trout. 
The  wild  trout  is  the  ideal  fish,  the  fish  of  the 
poets  and  the  sportsman,  who  often  feels  that  the 
breeding-pond  is  the  half-way  house  to  a  fish-stall  in  a 
market. 

And  so  he  wanders  down  the  brook,  happy,  filling 
his  hours  with  best  recreation.  Steeper,  higher,  wilder, 
in  lordly,  many-colored  scenes,  grow  the  banks  of  the 
Glen.  Great  trout  lie  in  the  waters  which  eddy, 
rush,  and  glance  in  silvery  wilfulness  over  an  intaglio 
of  white  and  golden  gravel  that  beautifies  the  swift 
current. 

Thus,  all  too  quickly,  passes  the  angler's  day.  The 
175 


ROOK     TROUT 


late  afternoon  light  is  over  all  as  he  again  stops,  and 
looks,  and  listens. 

To  his  right  is  a  high  knoll,  mottled  with  moss- 
growths,  its  base  sandalled  with  the  white  star-points 
of  wild  strawberry  blooms,  and  the  tiny  pale-blue 
flowers  of  forget-me-nots.  Beyond,  is  the  brown,  far- 
spreading  carpet  of  the  forest,  splashed  by  blue  of  vio- 
lets, white  of  lilies,  yellow  of  daffodils  I  The  whole 
left  bank  is  a  mass  of  dark  wintergreen  growth,  edged 
at  the  water  with  mint  and  cress.  Yonder  is  a  little 
slope  exquisite  with  the  pale  pink  flowers  of  the  anem- 
one. Buds  of  wild  honeysuckle  are  opening  down 
there  on  the  little  island.  Blossoms  of  laurel,  rhodo- 
dendron, trailing  arbutus  I  Forest  odors,  bird-notes, 
whispering  stream,  murmuring  foliage !  Mottled 
patches  of  sunlight  and  shadow  dance  under  the  great 
trees  where,  last  night,  the  strident  calls  of  the  whip- 
poorwills  were  ringing.  A  mother  partridge  is  trying 
to  coax  her  brood  of  chicks  across  that  log  over  the 
stream  I  Beautiful !  No  wonder  the  gray-haired  an- 
gler loves  it  all.  "  The  infinite  Night  with  her  solemn 
aspects.  Day,  and  the  sweet  approach  of  Even  and 
Morn,  are  full  of  meaning  for  him.  He  loves  the 
green  Earth  with  her  streams  and  forests,  her  flowery 
leas  and  eternal  skies — loves  her  with  a  sort  of  passion 
in  all  her  vicissitudes  of  light  and  shade  :  his  spirit 
revels  in  her  grandeur  and  charms — expands  like  the 
breeze  over  wood  and  lawn,  over  glade  and  dingle, 
stealing  and  giving  odors.  Nature  is  to  him  no  longer 
176 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

an  insensate  assemblage  of  colors  and  perfumes,  but  a 
mysterious  Presence  with  which  he  communes  in  un- 
utterable sympathies." 

So  this  angler  looks,  listens,  and  feels  more  and 
more. 

Every  water-curve  is  full  of  grace,  fantasy,  and  ease 
of  motion,  like  a  wind-swayed  flag.  And  he  studies 
the  currents,  full  of  color,  clearness,  mantlings  of  shad- 
ows, prismatic  lights  running  over  the  white  gravel  of 
the  bed,  or  darting  through  the  foam-fire.  And  at  still 
pauses  is  as  much  in  the  water  as  above  it — boughs, 
foliage,  blue  sky,  drifting  clouds,  all  softened  and 
etherealized  by  reflection. 

"  Siaeet  views  which  in  our  world  ahorce 

Can  never  well  he  scen^ 
Are  imaged  by  the  zvater's  love 

Of  this  fair  forest  green. 
And  all  is  interfused  beneath 

With  an  Elysian  glow  ; 
An  atmosphere  without  a  breathy — 

A  softer  day  below." 

This  effect  is  heightened  by  the  music  of  the  water- 
flow.  Old  anglers  have  ears  trained  to  nicest  sense  of 
sound  in  the  music  of  running  water,  and  will  know 
the  physical  conditions,  even  when  unseen,  which 
cause   many  of  the  notes  of  sound   in  a   trout-brook. 

1/7 


BROOK     TROUT 


The  impact  of  the  hurrying  water  on  the  air  causes 
vibrations  that  determine  the  notes  of  the  hquid 
oboe. 

When  deflected  from  a  bank  in  mass,  the  water  has 
the  swishing  sound  of  swift  volume — crisp  and  full  of 
life.  Confined  and  made  rapid  in  a  little  canon  or  cut, 
its  tone  is  deepened  and  becomes  sonorous. 

Or  it  falls  over  a  half-buried  timber  and  deepens  to 
a  low  roar,  which  is  slashed  with  purling  dots  of  sound 
as  drops  fall  singly  into  the  current.  From  underneath 
this  shell  of  swift  water  come  echoes  of  partly  drowned 
notes  from  the  back-current  below,  and  purls  from 
roots  and  boughs  around  which  the  turned  stream  hur- 
ries. Gurgles  ensue — the  compressed  air  below  vary- 
ing in  density  with  the  varying  volume  of  the  water- 
leaps,  the  tones  of  the  back-flow  struggling  through, 
with  the  whisper  of  air  intermingled  as  it  comes  from 
the  breaking  bubbles  with  which  the  boiling  pool  is 
brightly  opaque. 

Or  a  fallen  tree  with  its  hundreds  of  boughs  and 
twigs  forms  obstructive  points  of  sounding  current — 
tiny,  but  the  whole  furnishing  a  low,  droning  com- 
plaint. All  these  notes  are  varied  by  the  width  of 
stream,  volume,  depth,  speed,  angles  of  obstruction, 
character  of  the  bed,  kind,  amount,  and  density  of  foli- 
age, incline  and  height  of  banks,  changes  in  echoes 
and  resonance  being  endless,  and  even  being  affected 
by  the  dryness  or  humidity  of  the  air,  and  the  ming- 
ling of  foliage  sounds  as  winds  are  light  or  strong. 

178 


"  J  pool  •where  hig  fellows  lie  low." 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

Up  the  stream  is  a  broad  shallow  where  the  brook 
flows  over  partly  submerged  rocks,  spread  evenly,  with 
a  slumberous  sound,  like  a  steady  wind  moving  through 
thick  woods.  Falling  over  the  even  edge  of  a  wide 
dam  the  water  has  much  the  same  sound.  Unob- 
structed on  inclines,  rapidly  flowing  water  in  small 
volume  has  the  inimitable  purl,  so  exquisite  that  even 
in  music  the  sweetest  sounds  are  called  liquid,  like  a 
tinkling  rill.  And  the  notes  that  blend  from  different 
water-tones  are  always  in  concord,  never  in  dissonance. 
Flowing  under  many  conditions,  meeting  multiform 
obstacles  over  even  a  single  rod  of  its  course,  these 
notes  combine  and  make  a  certain  "  tone  "  or  pitch  of 
musical  sound.  Put  a  log  across  the  brook,  choke  it 
with  rocks,  or  remove  those  already  there,  and  all  the 
minor  sounds  are  changed — also  the  general  tone  and 
pitch  of  the  water-music.  Or  the  stream  will  part  with 
some  portion  of  its  water  volume,  which  will  run  into 
still  nooks  and  limpidly  go  to  sleep. 

Thus  the  tone,  volume,  and  blended  orchestral  ef- 
fects of  the  water  along  a  rushing  trout-stream  are 
endless  in  variety  and  beauty — but  all  perfect.  And 
the  feeling  of  the  hearing,  sensitive  student  will  be 
played  upon  until  some  echo  of  that  music  will  be 
roused  in  his  own  spirit  as  he  studies  it  all  in  its  light 
and  gloom,  sunshine  and  shadow,  storm  and  peace. 
So  in  all  ages  the  best  poets  have  studied  and  sung  of  the 
sound  of  flowing  water,  and  have  peopled  their  musical 
brooks  with  singing  nymphs  and  wraiths  of  water-sprites. 
179 


BROOK     TROUT 


Wild  life,  hypnotism,  the  home  of  Health  I  The 
true  angler  sees  much,  but  will  realize  that  as  com- 
pared with  what  is  about  him,  he  sees  very  little. 

Pluck  a  single  leaf  and  look  at  it  carefully.  Even 
a  skilled  artist  must  keep  it  before  him  as  a  model,  to 
mimic  the  delicate  veinings  and  exact  shape.  Break 
a  bough  from  a  maple-tree,  and  try  to  see  it.  Some 
of  the  leaves  are  mere  lines  to  the  sight — edgewise; 
others  are  foreshortened ;  many  are  shaded  by  com- 
panions. Through  them  reigns  an  intensity  of  reflec- 
tion and  brilliant  semi-transparence  acting  upon  and 
through  surfaces  extremely  complex  in  shape,  curve, 
and  relative  position.  The  light  is  in  among  the 
leaves  and  alters  the  appearance  of  the  bough  from 
within  as  well  as  without.  Turn  it,  hold  it  in  any 
position,  and  it  is  perfect ;  yet  not  another  bough  in  all 
these  miles  of  forest  is  just  like  it !  Multiply  the 
woods  until  they  are  a  wilderness  swayed  by  wind  or 
quiet  in  unity  of  rest — flecked  by  driving  cloud- 
shadows  or  flooded  with  moonlight  or  sunshine.  Man- 
ifestly, we  cannot  see  them.  Only  a  few  of  even  the 
subtle  and  weird  patterns  woven  by  ferns  and  mosses, 
and  flowering  grasses  and  plants,  on  the  floor  of  the 
forest  can  be  noted  or  understood. 

Above  all.  Mystery  reigns.  The  stream  drowses 
under  long,  partly  seen  roofs  of  foliage,  or  under  lov- 
ing, interlacing  boughs  of  a  water-tunnel  whose  portals 
and  winding  sides  are  a  tapestry  of  leaf  and  twig, 
misty  with  rain,  unearthly  as  they  shine  in  the  wan 
1 80 


ALONG     A     TROUT-STREAM 

smile  of  dying  sunlight;  even  more  real  and  divine  in 
ghostly  semi-darkness  at  night !  Opaline  lights  play 
through  still  lagoons  in  deep  glades  where  the  twin 
sisters  of  Silence  and  Twilight  keep  noonday  watch, 
and  "all  the  cheated  hours  sing  vespers,"  Foliage 
melting  away  in  distance  to  mystery  of  banks  and 
masses,  softest  shadows  deepening  into  black  gloom, 
lonely  stretches  of  the  stream  covered  with  Nature- 
Glory  in  their  remote  windings  I  Yet  over  each  small 
section  of  such  a  scene  is  the  mystery  of  color,  form, 
interlaced  shade.  Here  is  what  a  man  of  sharpest 
sight  has  said  of  it : 

"  I'he  stones  and  gravel  of  the  banks  catch  green  reflec- 
tions from  the  boughs  above.  T'he  bushes  receive  grays  and 
yellows  from  the  ground.  Every  hair-breadth  of  polished 
surface  gives  back  a  little  bit  of  blue  of  the  sky  or  gold  of 
sun.  This  local  color  is  again  disguised  and  modified  by 
the  hue  of  the  light.,  or  quenched  in  the  gray  of  the  shadaiLS." 

But  over  and  in  all  reigns  the  deeper  Mystery  of 
Life.  Visible  forms  and  their  beauty  are  not  the 
strongest  attractions  of  the  trout-stream.  Grant  that 
mystery  of  soft  depth  of  gloom,  grace  of  motion  in 
water,  and  of  greatest  delicacy  of  color  are  before  the 
angler.  What  enchantment  is  there  in  even  all  this 
lovely  environment  to  create  such  fierce  longing  for  it, 
such  content  when  possessed '?  Blue  sky-fire  may  burn 
like  a  steadfast  sapphire  through  emerald  foliage ;  the 

i8i 


BROOK     TROUT 


pride  of  fern-plumes  may  wave  and  rustle  in  their  green 
refreshment, — gold  and  pearl  may  throb  in  clouds  whose 
shadows  wing  their  way  over  mountain,  glen,  and  for- 
est,— all  through  a  sun-shafted  fantasia  of  gold-dusted 
wine-air  which  is  perfumed  by  arbutus,  lily,  violet,  and 
forget-me-not, — the  blossoming  life  all  in  a  tangle  of 
fragrant  day-dreams.  Fairy  tints  may  dance  and 
quiver  through  that  baby  of  prismatic  mist,  the  tiny 
rainbow  as  it  spans  the  cascade.  All  the  glamour  and 
riot  of  wild  freshness  may  dwell  in  the  mysterious 
woods,  waters,  sky,  as  a  June  breeze  makes  the  whole 
a  harp  of  whispering  leaves,  purling  crystal,  and  curv- 
ing blue.  Place  the  angler  in  closest  touch  with  it  all, 
as  he  wades  the  stream  with  ears,  heart,  and  spirit  recep- 
tive and  alert, — foliage  near,  rushing  water  about  him, 
changing,  intermingling  light  and  shadow  over  him  as 
it  falls  in  dancing  fretwork.  Yet  even  all  this  does 
not  explain  his  great  love.     What  causes  it? 

It  is  because  in  this  Nature  about  him  is  a  Mystery 
of  Life.  An  evasive,  sleeplessly  unwearied  living  prin- 
ciple dwells  in  the  leaf  he  may  pluck  and  crush,  and 
is  forming  its  colors,  shaping  its  forms.  Fern  and 
flower,  traced  with  life-streaming  veins,  specially  text- 
ured, with  hues  that  blend  and  part  again,  substantially 
present,  possessed,  yet  hold  a  secret  of  living  being  and 
growing  life  that  forever  eludes  his  search,  and  always 
will.  Life  even  more  mystic  than  the  spirit  that  he 
feels  in  himself  is  present  before  him,  inscrutable,  reg- 
nant, locked  and    barred  away  from    his  knowledge. 


ALONG     A     TROUT -STREAM 

Thus  for  him  Nature  wears  a  double  aspect — that  of 
substantial  presence  and  infinite  remoteness.  She 
dominates  him  with  love  of  possession  and  of  unat- 
tainable desire.  He  looks  with  mortal  eyes  upon  her 
material  features ;  yet  he  may  gaze  forever  upon  the 
veil  that  hides  her  invisible  secret  of  life,  and  she  is 
yet  Isis — a  Magnet  of  Mystery.  Therefore  he  kneels, 
a  rapt,  glad,  and  humble  devotee,  before  the  closed 
gates,  the  thin  wall  beyond  which  are  the  secrets  of 
her  vivifying  existence.  Besides,  she  stands,  like  him- 
self, between  an  Eternity  of  the  Past  and  one  of  the 
Future,  seeming  to  call  and  beckon  from  a  fathomless 
Abyss  whose  depths  his  eyes  will  never  pierce.  She 
is  fairest  of  the  fair  in  visible  forms;  yet  in  her  mys- 
tery of  life  she  is  unseen  and  unapproachable  even  in 
closest  communion.  So  he  loves  her  with  unutter- 
able love. 

But  he  knows  all  is  benign,  and  the  vital  import  of 
the  power  that  has  created.  But  how,  and  by  what 
facts  and  mysteries  of  life?  No  answer  comes.  He 
will  not  fathom  the  secrets ;  but  he  will  realize  more 
and  more  the  divine  wisdom  in  making  so  much  un- 
known as  all  is  borne  forward.  He  will  be  sure  that 
it  is  inconceivable  that  all  is  not  of  holy  import  and 
being — sure  that  all  the  mystery  is  blessed.  Half- 
read  messages  and  tones  of  sphere-music  will  come  to 
him  as  he  wonders  at  the  Earth,  and  at  himself,  stand- 
ing there  with  her,  both  between  two  Eternities.  And 
thus  his  faith  is  satisfied,  and  his  love  is  crowned! 
183 


BROOK     TROUT 

The  result  is  inevitable.  With  bowed  and  reverent 
head  the  angler  hopes  that  when  he  has  crossed  the 
Delectable  Mountains,  and,  one  poor  thread  in  the 
web  of  universal  history,  has  waved  back  his  mute 
farewells  to  his  favorite  trout-stream  before  he  enters 
the  Unknown  and  is  swallowed  by  Oblivion,  a  merci- 
ful and  loving  Heaven  may  furnish  to  him  the  coun- 
terpart of  this  brook.  Will  he  not  find  a  heavenly 
stream  on  that  Other  Side  ?  Will  not  its  waters  sing 
as  with  a  new  song,  its  forests  whisper,  its  flowers  en- 
chant? Yes,  for  there  stands  the  message  of  Holy 
Writ,  the  last  words  of  John,  Seer  and  Prophet — 
words  of  inspiration  and  promise:  "And  he  shewed 
me  a  pure  river  of  water  of  life." 


184 


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